THE LOVE of the StdC^E'D
THE LOVE OF
THE SACRED HEART
A SERIES FOR SPECIAL
SPIRITUAL READING
I.
THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART.
Illustrated by St. MARGARET MARY and the
Blessed JOHN EUDES.
" A book of much value to Religious and others, and
it is certainly calculated to promote devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus." — Messenger of the Sacred
Heart.
" A valuable guide and stimulus to perfection through
charity."— Month.
II.
THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART.
Illustrated by St. GERTRUDE.
" An admirable work." — Irish Independent.
11 A welcome addition to the Catholic private devo«
tional library." — Catholic Women's League Magazine.
III.
THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART.
Illustrated by St. MECHTILDE.
The Love of
the Sacred Heart
Illustrated by
ST. MECHTILDE
With a Foreword by the
LORD BISHOP OF SALFORD
LONDON
Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd.
28 ORCHARD STREET 8-10 PATERNOSTER ROW
W. i • — — — E-c- 4
AND . AT . MANCHESTER . BIRMINGHAM . AND . GLASGOW
1922
DEC -3 1952
NIHIL OBSTAT :
G. H. JOYCE, S.J.
Censor Deputatus.
IMPRIMATUR :
EDM. CAN. SURMONT,
Vicarius Gcneralis.
WESTMONASTBRU,
Die 6 Apr His t 1922.
FOREWORD
A,L lovers of the Sacred Heart were delighted to
see in the year of grace 1920 the long wished for
canonization of Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque
(1647-1690), whom God raised up in recent centuries
to revive the fire of devotion to the divine Heart of our
Lord, which had well-nigh been extinguished by the
frost and drought of the Jansenist heresy. The devotion
to the Sacred Heart is too often spoken of and thought
of as a " modern " devotion, and in one sense it is such.
The life-work of St. Margaret Mary has not only given
that sweetest of devotions a much greater vogue and a
deeper intensity throughout the world, but it has even
in our own times led to still further and wider develop
ments, such as the beautiful and providential practice,
whose world-wide spread we owe to the blessing and
encouragement of Pope Pius X — I mean the Enthrone
ment of the Sacred Heart in the home, which, thank God,
is becoming yearly more popular in our own country.
But the present book will show that in another sense the
devotion is by no means "modern." As will be seen,
the first part consists of copious translations from the
marvellous mystical revelations of a lover of the Sacred
Heart of a much earlier century, the Benedictine nun
St. Mechtilde (1241-1298), whose enraptured utterances
surpass in some respects those of her better known friend
vi FOREWORD
and disciple the great St. Gertrude, and whose signifi
cance as the type of mystic theology has been immor
talized by Dante in his mighty epic.* It will not fail
to be observed how extraordinarily similar a great deal
of the inspired language and profound imagery of the
Saint of the thirteenth century is to that of the one who
was canonized last year; although I am not aware that
there is evidence of Margaret Mary having been a student
of the works of her illustrious predecessor. It is surely
both significant and instructive that our divine Lord
deigned to make known the mysteries and treasures of
the unfathomable abyss of His divine Love in a manner
so similar, often identical, to two of His chosen spouses,
at an interval of several centuries. The pious translator
of the following treatises, however, very truly remarks
that in the revelations of the earlier of these Saints, the
mystic doctrines of the Sacred Heart are presented more
especially for the guidance and edification of the chosen
few, especially of the inmates of the cloister, called to
the more hidden life. On the other hand, the cult of
the Sacred Heart in these last three centuries has become,
and is becoming daily more and more, the common
property of all the children of the Church, of the laity
as well as of the clergy and the religious, of the working
man and woman as well as of the theologian, and even of
the little children as well as of Christians of mature years.
And that recent form of it to which I have alluded above
— the Enthronement in the home, whether the palace
or the cottage — has further widened it to become the
* The Matelda of Purgatorio, xxxiii. 118.
FOREWORD vii
property and the privilege not merely of the individual
soul, but of the whole Christian family.
May every reader of these pages pray for her who in
the midst of grave sickness and pain during her last
illness compiled them out of her abounding love to the
Sacred Heart of our Blessed Lord.
© LOUIS CHARLES,
Bishop vf Salford.
OCTAVE OF THE EPIPHANY,
1922
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD - - - - V
INTRODUCTORY : THE REVELATIONS TO
ST. MECHTILDE
CHAPTER
I. THE BOOK OF SPECIAL GRACE I
II. LIFE OF ST. MECHTILDE 5
in. ST. MECHTILDE'S MISSION - 9
THE SACRED HEART WHILE ON EARTH
I. LOVE! THE REASON OF THE INCARNATION - 12
II. LOVE ALWAYS LEADS TO JESUS - 15
III. THE FOUR BEATINGS OF THE SACRED HEART - l6
IV. THE SOLICITUDE OF THE SACRED HEART FOR
THE SALVATION OF SOULS - IJ
v. GOOD WORDS: WITNESSES OF THE LOVE OF THE
SACRED HEART - - 19
VI. THE TEARS OF OUR LORD - - 21
VII. THE HEART OF JESUS AND THE WELL-BELOVED
APOSTLE - 24
ix
x CONTENTS
CHATTER PAGE
VIII. THE EXCHANGES BETWEEN THE HEART OF JESUS
AND OUR HEARTS - 26
IX. HOW OUR LORD PIERCED MAGDALEN'S HEART
DURING THE PASSION - 28
X. THE SACRED HEART AT THE TIME OF OUR
LORD'S DEATH - - - 32
XI. THE GLORIFICATION OF THE SACRED HEART - 34
XII. PRAISE AND SUPPLICATION : THE FIVE JOYS
OF THE HEART OF JESUS IN HIS RESURREC
TION - -38
XIII. LOVE BROUGHT BACK THE SON OF GOD TO
HEAVEN - 40
THE DEALINGS OF THE SACRED HEART
WITH MEN
XIV. THE SACRED HEART MEDIATES BETWEEN GOD
AND MAN - 42
XV. IN WHAT MANNER THE SACRED HEART EXER
CISES THE OFFICE OF MEDIATOR TOWARDS
us - - 45
XVI. THE SACRED HEART IS THE SOURCE OF THE
DIVINE LIFE WHICH WE RECEIVE IN BAPTISM 49
XVII. THE MEANS OF LEADING A CHRISTIAN LIFE
MUST BE SOUGHT IN THE SACRED HEART - 53
xvin. MARY'S ASSISTANCE WITH THE SACRED HEART 55
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER PAGE
XIX. THE CHURCH ENSHRINED IN THE SACRED
HEART - "59
XX. THE SACRED HEART AND SINNERS - 6l
XXI. THE SACRED HEART A PERPETUAL VICTIM 62
XXII. IN HEAVEN THE SACRED HEART IS STILL THE
HEART OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD - 63
XXIII. THE INVITATIONS GIVEN BY THE SACRED HEART
TO THOSE WHO WISH TO DEVOTE THEM
SELVES TO ITS SERVICE - - 66
XXIV. WHAT THE SACRED HEART WISHES TO BE
FOR US - 68
XXV. THE SACRED HEART IS THE SOURCE OF FERVOUR JO
XXVI. THE SACRED HEART AND ITS UNION WITH SOULS J2
XXVII. CONSECRATED SOULS: THEIR VOCATION - 76
XXVIII. THE TIME OF TRIAL - 78
XXIX. TEPIDITY - 8O
XXX. THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE - - 83
XXXI. THE RENEWAL OF OUR FIRST FERVOUR - 86
XXXII. THE SACRED HEART SHOULD BE THE ONLY
TREASURE OF A RELIGIOUS - QO
XXXIII. A RELIGIOUS BELOVED BY THE SACRED HEART IS
A TREASURE IN A COMMUNITY - "93
XXXIV. THE SACRED HEART AND THE PREACHERS OF
' THE GOSPEL - "95
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXXV. THE SACRED HEART AND THOSE WHO SUFFER 96
XXXVI. THE SACRED HEART WISHES TO CONSOLE THOSE
WHO SUFFER - - - 98
XXXVIII. THE SACRED HEART AND PURGATORY - IQJ
XXXIX. THE SACRED HEART AND HEAVEN - - 113
XL. OUR DUTY TOWARDS THE SACRED HEART:
DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART - 115
XLI. THE ADORATION OF THE SACRED HEART - 117
XLII. THE OFFERING OF OUR HEARTS - - 119
XLIII. THE OUTPOURINGS OF THE HEART - - 122
XLIV. REPARATION FOR SIN - 125
XLV. THANKSGIVING - 129
XLVI. CONFIDENCE - 13!
XLVII. ORDINARY ACTIONS DONE IN UNION WITH THE
SACRED HEART - - 134
XLVIII. DIVINE PRAISE - - 138
XLIX. THE SACRED HEART ITSELF TRAINS MECHTILDE
IN DIVINE PRAISE - - 14!
L. THE INTENTIONS OF THE HEART OF JESUS IN
DIVINE PRAISE - - 144
LI. THE SACRED HEART AND CONFESSION - 146
LII. ON PURITY OF CONSCIENCE - - 15!
LIII. THE SACRED HEART AND HOLY MASS - 154
CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER pAGE
LIV. INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION - 159
LV. PREPARATION FOR HOLY COMMUNION - l6l
LVI. THE FIVE HAIL MARYS BEFORE HOLY COM
MUNION - ift*
LVII. OF DRYNESS IN RECEIVING HOLY COM
MUNION - jgr
LVIII. THE FRUIT OF HOLY COMMUNION - - l6/
The
Love of the Sacred Heart
The Archives of the Devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary
INTRODUCTORY
THE REVELATIONS TO ST. MECHTILDE
CHAPTER I
" THE BOOK OF SPECIAL GRACE »
THE Revelations of St. Mechtilde are contained in
a book entitled The Book of Special Grace. This
book was written almost entirely without her
knowledge, and is based on the recitation of her com
munications with our divine Master. Two of the
Saint's companions, of whom St. Gertrude was one, had
arranged together to write it. It was nearly finished
when St. Mechtilde became aware of it. While she was
hearing Mass a mysterious voice made one of the culprits
known to her and at the same time asked her this question:
" What shall be her reward for what she has written ?"
Very much astonished St. Mechtilde asked her friend if
she had been in the habit of writing down what she told
her. She, not wanting to acknowledge it, made some
excuse, telling the Saint to ask our Lord about it. St.
Mechtilde, having thus been made aware of the truth, was
so grieved as to be inconsolable. She therefore went to
2 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
our Lord, her ordinary refuge, and told Him con
fidingly of her sorrow. Our Lord appeared to her at
once, holding the book on His Heart with His right hand.
He kissed it, and said to her: " All that is found written
in this book has flowed from My divine Heart, and will
return to it."
St. Mechtilde asked our Lord if now she should cease
communicating to others the graces she received from
God. Our Lord answered: " Give Me to others with
the liberality of My generous Heart. Give Me to others
according to My goodness and not according to thine."
She answered: " What will they do with this book after
my death and what good will result from its being
written?" The Lord replied: "All those that seek
Me therein with a true heart shall rejoice; those that love
Me will be more inflamed with My love; and those in
sorrow shall be consoled." Mechtilde again asked what
name the book should bear, and our Lord answered:
"They shall call it The Book of Special Grace."
So our Lord Himself approved of the book being
written and also watched over it, so that no error should
appear in it.
One day Mechtilde, remembering this book, asked our
Lord this question: " How am I to know whether what
they have written is correct, as I have neither seen nor
approved of it; and even if I read it carefully now, I
could not be sure if I remembered correctly ?" Our
Lord replied: " I am in the hearts of those who hear
thee and I execute their desires. I am their understanding
as they listen, and it is through Me they are able to
comprehend what thou sayest. I am also in their mouth,
when they speak of it. I guide their hands, when they
write it. I am their Helper and co-operator in all, and
so, in Me and by Me, who am the Truth, all that they
dictate and write is true. The elegance of style with
which I speak to thee is wanting, but by My grace, all is
approved and confirmed in the truth. Thou hast so
" THE BOOK OF SPECIAL GRACE " 3
often besought Me never to allow thee to fall into any
error, that thou hast good reason to believe that, in My
goodness, I have heard thy prayer." She then saw three
rays of light from the divine Heart fall on the two persons
who wrote this book, and understood from this that it
was by the inspiration and strength of divine grace that
they devoted themselves to this work, and that therefore
they generously accepted all the fatigue that came to
them from it.
The book could therefore be finished and would do
great good to souls. Mechtilde's two friends congratu
lated themselves and thanked our Lord. ... " Blessed
be God, the Author of all good; it is by His Will and
blessing that this book is published. It is by no private
design nor presumption in those who have written, but by
the advice and command of their Abbess and with the
approval of their Bishop.
" May we be forgiven the mistakes in composition and
in elegance of style which will be met with; we are not
accustomed to writing, and St. Augustine says : ' A
characteristic of a good mind is to love the truth in the
words, not the words themselves.' J! (Prologue.)
The servant of God was moreover able to obtain the
book, correct it and give it her sanction. It was not,
however, without great resistance on the part of her two
companions, who constantly refused to allow her to see it
from fear of causing her pain. Our Lord had once more
to interfere, and He reassured St. Mechtilde, saying to
her: " Fear not, all comes from Me, all is My work.
I gave thee the gift, and as it comes from Me, it is also just
as truly by My inspiration that thy companions have
undertaken and carried on this work. So, fear not and
be not alarmed, I will Myself preserve this book from all
error. Every word that has been written has been
dictated by the Holy Spirit, and all are as pearls that shall
adorn their crown in My eyes eternally."
From this time the two friends, reassured by this
4 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
vision, showed the book to St. Mechtilde whenever she
wished it, or they read it to her faithfully. In doubtful
passages the Saint consulted our Lord, and so He corrected
it Himself.
After St. Mechtilde's death St. Gertrude saw her in
glory, and asked if she were pleased or otherwise with the
publication of this book. " It is my greatest joy," she
replied. " I see it will contribute to the glory of God,
to the fulfilment of His will, and to my neighbours' good.
The book shall also be named The Light of the Church.
They who read it shall recognize themselves in the
brightness of the light. They will see by what spirit
they"" are animated. The sorrowful shall find in it con
solation." The Saint compared the readers of this book
to those who should receive a present from a King through
a messenger. They would possess and reap as much
benefit as if they had received the gift direct from the
King's hand (vii. 17).
Such was the origin of the Book of Special Grace.
It would be impossible to tell the history of its beginning
more simply or to establish better its truth and worth.
Its composition extended over several years. It was begun
in 1291, when Mechtilde was fifty years of age. It could
only have been finished shortly before her death, which
took place in 1298. St. Gertrude, who was one of the
collaborators, had begun her own book, The Herald of
Divine Love, the 25th of March, 1289, so that these two
admirable works date from the same time.
They are both incomparable treasures of doctrine on
the Sacred Heart, for rarely before and never since have
the relations of the divine Heart with the other divine
Persons or with the souls of men been treated of so fully
or with so much exactness and brilliancy.
From this treasure we are going to drink deeply. But
first let us cast a glance at the holy soul who thus reveals
to us the secrets of the divine Heart, Our faith in her
words will surely be the firmer.
CHAPTER II
LIFE OF ST. MECHTILDE
THE first and final chapter of the Book of Gracehad
been carefully hidden from St. Mechtilde's sight.
Her humility would certainly have taken alarm at
the praises there bestowed on her. These pages, though
too few, are enough to make us appreciate her great
virtues . We will here give the principal details .
The first chapter begins as follows :
This virgin was from her earliest infancy prevented by
divine grace. At her birth, as it was feared that she was
about to expire, they carried her in haste to be baptized
by a priest of great holiness who was just preparing to
celebrate the Holy Mass. After baptizing her he pro
nounced these words which we love to think prophetic:
" Why do you fear ? This child will not die, but will
become a holy religious. By her God will work great
wonders and she will finish her life at a good old age, full of
merits." When she was seven years of age her mother
took her to visit the convent which was near her parents'
residence. Once there she refused to leave, notwithstand
ing her mother's desire for her to return home. Full of
delight, she begged the Sisters, one by one, to receive her
into their company; and neither threats nor coaxing
could move her to leave them.
What do we know of the family that the Saint deserted
at so early an age, and what of the monastery in which
she had come to bury her young life ?
Mechtilde belonged to the family of Hackborn. She
was born in 1241. The monastery into which she
entered in 1248 was at that time at Rodarsdorf in the
vicinity of her parents' chateau. In 1258 this monastery
5
6 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
was transferred to Helfta, on land which was given by
her brothers the Lords Albert and Ludwig of Hackborn.
This monastery was near the small town of Eisleben in
Saxony, where, two centuries later, Luther was born.
St. Mechtilde advanced rapidly from virtue to virtue.
" She had a wonderfully sweet disposition, profoundly
humble, most patient, a sincere lover of poverty, and very
fervent and devoted. But it was especially in her love
for God and her neighbour that she made the greatest
progress; she showed herself pleased and amiable to all,
full of tender compassion towards the afflicted or those
in trouble. She was like a loving mother to those,
showering on them consolation and help, and so no one
went near her without being comforted and strengthened.
She was much loved by all. Everyone wanted to be with
her, and this often caused her some inconvenience."
So perfect a religious must have been a treasure in the
Convent of Helfta. Not only had God enriched her with
spiritual gifts, but also with those of nature — learning, a
wide knowledge of literature, a beautiful voice, everything
that could make her useful to the monastery. It seemed
as if God would not allow her to want for anything.
Her beautiful voice caused her to be appointed Cantor
to the Convent. Many times she gained by her singing
what she prized more than the applause of men, the
approval of her divine Spouse, to whom she had entirely
consecrated her voice. She also had charge of the School,
where St. Gertrude soon became one of her pupils.
" She taught Christian doctrine with such efficiency
that we have never had, and fear we never shall have,
anyone in our Monastery to equal her. The Sisters
gathered around her as around a preacher to hear the
word of God. She dictated and taught them prayers,
and they were so numerous that if gathered together
they would make a larger book than all the psalms.
" Besides all this she was a perfect religious ready to
LIFE OF ST. MECHTILDE 7
renounce her own will and full of self-contempt, prompt
in obedience, zealous for prayer and contemplation; she
also had the gift of tears. She so practised poverty as to
refuse herself even what was necessary. It was only
through obedience that she possessed a mantle, and her
other garments were made of the commonest materials
and mended and patched all over. Being immersed in the
love of our divine Lord she so forgot herself that she lost
the use of her exterior senses, as we read of St. Bernard.
She ate rotten eggs without perceiving it and before those
near her could prevent it. Sometimes, when visitors were
at the Monastery and she had refused to eat meat, they
gave it to her and she ate it, until from their laughter she
saw something unusual had occurred and came to herself
" This great lover of suffering mortified her body for
the conversion of sinners. During Lent, hearing the
people shouting and singing, she felt consumed with zeal
for God's honour and also touched with great compassion.
To offer God some small reparation she placed pieces of
broken glass and other sharp objects in her bed and rolled
on them until her flesh was torn and she was covered with
wounds and blood; the pain afterwards prevented her
from either sitting or lying down. During Passiontide
she was so full of compassion she could not speak of the
sufferings of Christ without shedding tears. When she
spoke either of the sufferings or of the love of Christ she
was filled with such fervour that her face and hands
became quite red. And we think that she very often
shed her blood spiritually for the love of Christ " (v. 30).
In enumerating her virtues Mechtilde's companions
often compared her with the different orders of Saints
and Angels. They said: "This angelic virgin deserves
to be compared above all with the Seraphim; united so
frequently, in an intimate manner, with that love which is
God Himself; and clasped with so much affection to His
Heart, so full of fire, she became one spirit with Him."
8 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
She was never tired of speaking of God, and with so much
fervour and divine Love that she enkindled the same in
the hearts of all who heard her. Indeed, one might say
of her, as of the Prophet Elias, that her words " burnt
like a torch."
When did Mechtilde receive the first confidences
of the Sacred Heart ? We are told by her companions
that, from her earliest infancy, God commenced to
reveal His secrets to her, but she says that one of the
first graces she received was the gift of the Sacred
Heart. So we may conclude, that for many years, if
not all her life, she had had a true devotion to this
worthy object of our love. Our Blessed Lord not only
revealed to her His Sacred Heart, but He would place it
as a pledge in the breast of His holy Spouse. She de
scribes the event in these words: "On Wednesday in
Easter Week hearing at Mass the words Venite benedicti
Patris mei, she was filled with a sweet and extraordinary
joy and said to our Lord: ' Oh that I may be one of those
blessed souls who shall hear those sweet words from Thy
mouth.' Our Lord replied: c Thou mayest be very
sure thou wilt be, and to prove it, I give thee My Heart
to keep always, and only to be given back to Me when I
shall have fulfilled thy desire. I give thee My Heart as a
place of refuge; at the hour of thy death it will be im
possible for thee to lose thyself on any other road, thou
wilt only have My Heart wherein to rest eternally.' "
This gift was the forerunner of many she was to receive
from God. She began to have a very great devotion to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ; whenever our Lord
appeared to her she nearly always received some special
favour from His Heart, as may be seen from many places
in this book. She often loved to say: " If all the graces
that have come to me from the Sacred Heart of Jesus
were written down, a book larger than a Breviary would
not suffice in which to narrate them."
CHAPTER III
ST. MECHTILDE'S MISSION
Afar back as the thirteenth century the Sacred
Heart enriched this chosen soul with His most
extraordinary favours. Like the well-beloved
Apostle, Mechtilde often leaned her head on the breast
of the Man-God. She drank from the same source as that
from which the Apostle had drawn the floods of truth
contained in his Gospel. She had free entrance into
this sanctuary of perfect praise. She found in this shrine
the treasures of all graces and also that of divine love, and
her heart was filled with the fire which inflamed the
Seraphim. Also she received the Sacred Heart itself
in some mysterious way, and bore it in her breast until
her death.
In the wonderful favours granted by God to this humble
daughter of St. Benedict He had special designs. No
doubt He wished to manifest His marvellous conde
scension. He loves to lower Himself towards souls who
sink into their own nothingness, but He wished also to
give Mechtilde special tokens of His liberality, so that she
might be received as the accredited messenger of His
Sacred Heart. The writing of the Book of Special Grace
was not the result of a little pious indiscretion, but a
providential fact, instigated by our Lord Himself. Several
times He intervened to calm the fears of the humble
Benedictine, to guide the pen of her companions, or to
give to the entire book His formal approbation, affirming
that all contained therein had originated in His divine
Heart. He also declared that that Heart would bless
those who on reading this book became enamoured of the
gift of special grace.
We must, however, make one remark. Mechtilde did
10 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
not receive any mission to convert souls, but only to
enlighten those to whom the Sacred Heart had made
itself known. As the prophets of the ancient law were
only sent to the people of Israel, so the Virgin of Helfta
was only sent to the privileged friends of the Sacred Heart.
The devotion to this adorable Heart was for three cen
turies to be the reward of the perfect. Even the title
of the book and the kind of grace of which it records the
marvels indicate this restriction. It is the Book of Special
Grace. That of universal grace was only to appear
in the seventeenth century, and was also inspired by
the Sacred Heart and written by the timid hand of
Margaret Mary.
All are now called to know the Sacred Heart. The
Book of Special Grace must henceforth be known by the
second name given it by St. Mechtilde, The Light of the
Church : Liber namque ille Lumen Ecclesice vocabitur — a
prophecy which is fulfilled in our days. Thanks to the
labours of the Benedictine Fathers of Solesmes, there is
now a new translation of St. Mechtilde's works, which
gives pious readers the opportunity of tasting the sweet
ness and unction contained in them. Their doctrinal
value is admirably described by the translator as follows :
" The mystery of the Incarnation holds the first place,
or rather is seen and felt, in all its manifestations. The
Man-God is not only Saviour but Mediator between
God and man. And what strong incentive caused His
intervention and led Him to carry out this role even to
the end ? It was love. Yes, love which is charity, and
charity which is God Himself (John iv. 8). Love in
human form* seized upon the Son of God and caused
Him to descend into the womb of a virgin-daughter of
Adam; then, leading Him through the rough ways of
poverty and suffering to the Cross on Calvary, raised
Him up again, and followed Him to heaven, to the right
* See p. 14, Book II., Chap, i,
ST. MECHTILDPS MISSION 11
hand of His Father, whence she always inclines the God
head towards the children of earth. . . . The divine
Heart is always seen to be a source of love and also of the
operations of love. Mechtilde presents us with more
pictures than Gertrude, and this applies to all her visions,
which are nearly always represented to us under a more
sensible form than those of St. Gertrude. What is more
delightful or lovingly divine than the gift our Lord made
of His Heart to Mechtilde, as a pledge which He would
require of her at the moment of death, and this promise
made to all : " I will drink of all the hearts who drink of
Mine" (Preface)?
The works of St. Mechtilde raise the veil which here
below hides the Sacred Heart from our longing gaze.
We might also state, though that is out of our province,
that their literary beauty is of a very high order. Dante
was several times inspired by the Book of Special Grace,
and the question is discussed to-day whether a person
introduced into the Divina Commedia under the name of
Matelda* is not intended to be the Virgin of Helfta.
We may leave this question to the decision of the learned,
and for ourselves gather together all the passages wherein
the Sacred Heart speaks to us in the Book of Special Grace.
The Rev. Dom Paquelin marks the different divisions
to which we can devote our attention :
1. The dispositions of the Heart of Jesus from the
moment when in the bosom of the Father He was seized by
love and cast into the womb of Mary to the day when He
returned triumphant to heaven.
2. The relations of the Sacred Heart with each one of
us in' the mysteries of grace and of the Holy Eucharist.
3. Our acts of worship towards the Sacred Heart.
A summary of these extracts would form a very complete
code of doctrine of the Sacred Heart. So that the first
pages of this book might be called A Sixteenth Century
Treatise on Devotion to the Sacred Heart.
* Matelda, Purgatorio, xxxiii. 118.
THE SACRED HEART WHILE ON
EARTH
CHAPTER I
LOPE— THE REASON OF THE INCARNATION
THE greatest marvel in heaven and on earth is the
Incarnation of the Son of God. That by a word
the Almighty should bring out of nothing light and
the stars, the earth and the heavens, is nothing very-
astonishing ; it is the work of one absolute Creator and
Master. But that the Almighty should deign to abase
Himself, be conceived and born of a woman, and appear
like an ordinary child, is what neither Angels nor men
could have imagined ! And what led the Son of God to
such depths of humiliation ? His love for us — " God of
God, light of light. True God of true God, begotten, not
made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things
were made, who for us men and for our salvation came
down from heaven, was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary, and made man."
The Incarnation is therefore caused by love — St.
Mechtilde states the truth with both strength and grace.
She personifies love under the form of a Virgin, and it
is this Virgin who steals from the Heart of God His
Son eternal and Almighty as Himself.
We will give her own words : " She saw in the Heart
of God what seemed a beautiful Virgin, who had in her
hand a diamond ring with which she constantly touched
the Heart of God. The soul asked the Virgin why she
so touched the divine Heart and she replied : " I am divine
12
LOPE—THE REASON OF THE INCARNATION 13
Love, and this diamond represents Adam's sin, and as
blood is used with which to break the diamond, so Adam's
faults can only be obliterated by the Incarnation and
blood of Christ. As soon as Adam had sinned, I inter
vened and prevented the consequences of this fault.
I incessantly touched the Heart of God, moving it to
pity, and left it no peace until I had taken the Son of
God from the bosom of the Father and placed Him in
the womb of Mary His Mother " (II. xvii. i).
What a delightful thought ! The love of God seized
Adam's sin, blacker than coal, and made of it a precious
diamond ! With this sin so transformed it touched the
Heart of God and caused the greatest of wonders, the
Incarnation of the Divine Word. Holy Church, which
had already declared this thought in the Symbol of the
Creed, developed it still further in the Hymn for the
feast of the Sacred Heart. Are not the two following
stanzas a remembrance of St. Mechtilde's revelations ?
Amor coegit te tuus
Mortale corpus sumere,
Ut novus Adam redderes
Quod vetus ille abstulerat.
Ille amor, almus artifex
Terrae, marisque et siderum,
Errata patrum miserans
Et nostra rumpens vincula.
" It was Thy love which forced Thee to take upon Thee a mortal
Body in order to restore to us, O second Adam ! what the first had
caused us to lose.
" It was this love, O Sovereign Creator of the earth, the sea and the
heavens ! that pitied the fall of our first parents and broke the chains
of our slavery."
Love alone overcame the power of divine Majesty.
He, so to say, abased His unfathomable Wisdom; He then
poured out His Goodness, tempered the rigour of His
Justice, changed it into mercy and then lowered the
i4 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
Greatness of God down to the misery of our exile. The
Incarnate Word could therefore say to St. Mechtilde:
" I am the Son of Love and Love is My Mother " (i. 35);
and the Angels rightly hailed Him, saying: " We praise
Thee for ever, whom love has made the Son of a
Virgin" (i. 12).
CHAPTER II
LOVE ALWAYS LEADS TO JESUS
EnS, which caused the Son of God to come down on
the earth will leave Him no more but will be the
moving power of all He does. So, the Virgin who
had personified Love, told St. Mechtilde that she had
led Mary to go to the hill country to visit St. Elizabeth.
In his mother's womb St. John was filled with so great
a joy at the presence of Christ that he never thrilled with
earthly joy.
And then Love continued: " I first helped His Holy
Mother with my pure hands to wrap Him in swaddling
clothes. I warmed Him in my embrace: and then and
afterwards I rendered to Him and His Mother all the
services they needed. Afterwards I led Him to Egypt,
and then I inspired Him in all He did or suffered for man
until I had fastened Him to the tree of the Cross. There
I appeased God's anger entirely and united man to Gcd
by the chain of an indissoluble love."
St. Paul says : Dilexit me et tradidit semetipsum pro me —
" Christ Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me " as a
Victim on the Cross. But as love was always the cause
of His gifts we may extend this conclusion and say:
Jesus Christ loved me, therefore He gives me His Body
and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, His Mother from the
Cross, His grace in the Holy Sacraments, His light in the
Gospel,- the Church for a Mother, the priesthood for a
support, and heaven for a reward.
Love still opens the Sacred Heart so that it may pour
down on us all its treasures.
CHAPTER III
THE FOUR BEATINGS OF THE SACRED HEART
FROM the first instant of His conception until His
death Love reigned as King over the Son of God
made man. This Love had its counterpart in the
Sacred Heart. One Christmas day Mechtilde was
allowed to fathom this secret. Taking the Infant God
in her arms she pressed Him to her breast, and felt the
beatings of the Sacred Heart. She heard three loud,
quick beats, then one lighter. Mechtilde was astonished.
The divine Infant said to her: " My heart did not beat
like those of other men, but always as you have heard it,
from My infancy until My death, and this was why I
died so quickly on the Cross. The first beat comes from
the Almighty 'power of My love which was so strong in me
that by sweetness and patience it conquered the opposi
tion of the world and the cruelty of the Jews. The
second beat comes from a love full of wisdom ; it led Me
to conduct Myself and all that was Mine so admirably,
and to regulate all that is in heaven or on earth so wisely.
The third comes from a love of mildness — I was so entirely
penetrated with it, that for Me it changed this world's
bitterness into sweetness, and caused Me even to find
sweet the hard death I bore for the salvation of men.
The last beat, more faint, expresses the kindness I showed
as_man, which rendered Me agreeable^to aft, and even
imitable."
And so the Sacred Heart enshrines an almighty, a most
wise, and an infinitely sweet love of God as well as an
agreeable and human love.
16
CHAPTER IV
'THE SOLICITUDE OF THE SACRED HEART FOR
THE SALVATION OF SOULS
THE Prophet said of the future Messias Exultavit ut
g-igas — "He hath rejoiced as a giant." Thinking of
these words, Mechtilde asked our Lord to explain
them to her. Our Lord at once appeared in the heavens
to her like a young man, slender, agile, and very beautiful.
He said: " Whoever starts on a long and difficult course
must gather his garments closely round him so as not to
be retarded. In this way I united Myself closely with
human nature and liability to pain, reducing the length
of eternity to the shortness of man's life here below. I
darted forward as a giant, in all his strength, having this
difficult and painful course to run, wherein I should
accomplish the redemption of mankind. Again, he who
carries something precious and of great value girds himself
carefully, for fear he should lose it, so I am carrying the
precious treasure, man's soul, and have girded Myself
with care, and I carry the souls of all those who are to
be saved, with love and untold desires, in My Heart."
He who like a giant sprang from heaven to save souls,
transformed by love, became the Good Shepherd seeking
the lost sheep. The young man, slender and agile, has
to take the part of the Father of the family going to meet
the prodigal son and preparing a banquet at his son's
return* Who could describe the ardent desires of the
Heart of Jesus for the salvation of souls ? " Come here
and rest at My feet," He said one day to Mechtilde;
obeying at once, she rested her head on Jesus' feet, so that
her ear was just over the wound in His foot, and there she
heard the sound as of water boiling in the wound. Our
I7 2
1 8 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
Lord asked her what was the sound she heard. Mechtilde
thought she could not tell, and our Lord continued:
"This boiling caldron seems to say: Hasten! hasten!
So the ardent love of My heart ever urged me on, saying:
Hasten from labour to labour, from town to town, from
preaching to preaching, never allowing Me any rest,
until I had done all that was necessary for thy salvation."
CHAPTER V
GOOD WORDS— WITNESSES OF THE LOVE OF
THE SACRED HEART
AL Christ's works originated in His Heart. From
this fruitful and loving Heart, as He Himself says,
flows and will flow without ceasing every good, all
joy and happiness in heaven and on earth, In the same
way all the good words contained in the Gospels come
from this sacred source.
He wishes St. Mechtilde to understand this. " He
opened to her the wound in His Holy Heart and said to
her: { See the extent of My love. If thou wouldst
know it well, seek for nothing clearer than the words of
the Holy Gospels. No words have ever expressed a
more tender love than those — " As the Father hath loved
Me, I also have loved you " (John xv. 9). And there are
many others like them, which I spoke to My disciples
as well as to My Father, while loading them with My
benefits.' "
Nothing can really express the immensity of the love
the Sacred Heart has for us better than these words — " As
the Father hath loved Me." We are loved by Jesus as
He is loved by His Father. That is, He is loved above
all, He is loved so as to be the object of His eternal com
placency. " This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased."
There are still other words which reveal the greatness
of the love of the Sacred Heart — " the four words of
the voice of His glory," as He calls them Himself. They
are each a triumphal hymn of the Sacred Heart; they are
more, they are a proclamation of His love. Let us listen
to our Lord:
20 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
" This is the voice of My glory. When a soul repents
of its sins more through love than through fear, and weeps
for the sins it has committed, it deserves to hear these
words from Me: * Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace '
(Luke vii. 48). And, indeed, as soon as anyone repents
sincerely of the sins he has committed, I fully forgive
him and receive him into My favour as though he had
never offended Me.
" The second voice of My glory is that which a soul
united to Me by intimate prayer and contemplation hears
from Me: ' Come, My beloved, show Me thy face.*
" The third is when a soul about to leave the body is
sweetly invited to rest : * Come, My elect, and I will
make of thee My throne ' (Office of Virgins).
" The fourth voice of My glory shall be heard on the
Day of Judgment, when I will invite with triumph to My
Kingdom of honour and glory all those whom I have
chosen from all eternity. I shall say to them : ' Come ye
blessed of My Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world ' " (Matt. xxv. 34).
The words of glory of the Sacred Heart are those which
make us happy.
CHAPTER VI
'THE TEARS OF OUR LORD
WE are never told in the Gospels that Jesus smiled,
but we often hear that He wept. He wept at the
grave of Lazarus, an image of a soul dead in sin;
and He wept over Jerusalem, the ungrateful and hardened
city; and at other times tears fell from the eyes of our
divine Master. Why did these tears flow, and what
became of them ? Let us listen to Jesus :
" On earth, whenever I thought of My ineffable union
with the Eternal Father by which I am One with Him,
My humanity could not refrain from weeding. Also
every time I thought of the immense love which had
drawn Me from the Father's bosom to unite Me with
human nature, My humanity was fain to weep." Then
Mechtilde asked: " And where are those tears which love
made Thee shed ?" He answered : " They are in a special
place in My Heart, they are a loved treasure, guarded in
a chosen, secret place." She replied: "Thou didst tell
me once that these tears of love disappeared in Thy
Heart as in a furnace." Our Lord replied: "That is
quite true, for in the furnace of My Heart they disappear
as drops of water thrown into the fire, but they are not
consumed, they remain in the depth of My Heart."
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is therefore the source of
the tears He shed while here below and the mysterious
reserv6ir which received and guards them even now in
heaven.
" Jesus, O most loving Jesus," cries out Mgr. Baudry,
" how long have I begged of Thy Heart the secret of
those tears Thou didst shed on earth ! Have I not
wept enough to deserve to be told the value of those tears ?
21
22 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
" Sweet as the dew from Heaven and bitter as the waters
of the ocean, tears are equally a sign of joy or of sadness,
and because both these feelings come from the heart,
it follows that tears are but the words of the heart, the
exterior manifestation of what it feels within " (Mgr.
Baudry, 434).
The love of Jesus for His Father, the love of Jesus for
men, was then the cause of His tears — tears of joy because
of the glory He was about to procure for His Father and
the salvation He was bringing to the world by His sacri
fice, tears of sadness on account of the insults continually
offered to that well-beloved Father and because of the
ingratitude of which mankind was guilty.
The tears of Jesus were gathered together and are kept
in His Heart. Notwithstanding the burning flames of
which that Heart is the seat, they are not consumed.
Let us draw near to the precious treasure which contains
them. Somewhere there we shall find a tear shed for
ourselves, but let us bring our own so that they may be
sanctified, even those we shed for frivolous reasons.
" Thou shalt say to the person for whom Thou prayest,"
said our Lord one day to St. Mechtilde, " that she should
not weep so much, but if she cannot help doing so that
she should unite her tears to Mine, regretting that she
had not shed them for sinners or through love. I will
then offer them to the Father, united to Mine, when she
asks me to do so." Our Lord continued: "Tell her
from Me, that she should beg Me in My goodness to
change the nature of her tears as if they had been shed
from love or devotion, or from contrition for her sins."
At these words St. Mechtilde wondered much that
tears shed so uselessly could be changed into such holy
tears.
And our Lord said to her: " I ask her only to believe
in My goodness, and according to her faith My love in her
shall become perfect."
THE TEARS OF OUR LORD 23
Let us therefore take our tears to the Heart of Jesus.
Mingled with His, they will become meritorious. Is it
not a consolation for those who weep to be able to do so
on the heart of a sincere and sympathizing friend?
Where, then, shall we find a friend whose heart is more
devoted to us than is the Sacred Heart of Jesus ?
CHAPTER VII
THE HEART OF JESUS AND THE WELL-
BELOVED APOSTLE
ST. JOHN has called himself "the disciple
whom Jesus loved." He had a meek and gentle
heart and through his relationship to our Lord
was intimate with Him from his infancy. One day
Mechtilde was anxious to know if our Lord had renewed
His intimacy with his relatives on His return from Egypt.
He replied: "How comes it, thinkest thou, that it is
said in the Holy Gospels : * They sought Him amongst
their kinsfolk and acquaintance,' if I was not sometimes
with them ? And how came it, thinkest thou again, that
St. John the Evangelist was so prompt in following Me,
when I called him, after the marriage, if My manner of
life and character had not pleased him, for he knew Me
well, which made his obedience in following Me so easy."
If Jesus loved St. John more than the other apostles,
was it not because St. John loved Him more than did his
companions ? For this reason he was allowed to rest his
head on the breast of his divine Master at the Last Supper.
In ecstasy at such a grace Mechtilde asked our Lord
how she could show her love and praise Him on His
disciple's account. " First, thou shalt praise Me," replied
Jesus, " on account of the nobility of his birth, for he
belongs to My family, the most noble on the earth;
second, that I called him from the marriage to the apos-
tolate; third, that he deserved to see the beauty of My
face on the mountain in preference to others; fourth,
that at the Last Supper he deserved to rest on My breast;
fifth, that he more than others received the gift of know
ledge, so that he was able to write for others the prayer
24
THE HEART OF JESUS AND THE APOSTLE 25
I said on the Mount of Olives ; sixth, because by particular
love, I, on the Cross, gave him My Mother to guard;
seventh, that after My Resurrection I gave him special
lights, which caused him to recognize Me when, driven
before the storm, he cried out with the other disciples :
' It is the Lord ' (John xxi. 7); eighth, that by a special
privilege, due to My love, I revealed to Him My mysteries
when he wrote the Apocalypse, and through My divine
inspiration he was able to write in his Gospel : ' In the
beginning was the Word,' which truth was unknown to
the Prophets and to other men; ninth, that, for My
glory, he drank poison ; tenth, that in My Name he worked
many miracles and raised the dead; eleventh, that I
rejoiced him by My many appearances and that I invited
him to My banquet with his brothers; twelfth, that I
exempted him from all bodily pains and led him gloriously
from this exile to eternal joy."
The Sacred Heart not only willed to reward his well-
beloved disciple while on earth, but He has also raised him
to a high degree of glory in heaven. " St. John received
in all his faculties something higher than all the other
saints. His eyes see more clearly the inaccessible light
of the divinity. His ears catch more quickly, for the
nourishment of his soul, the sweet whisper which comes
from God. His mouth and tongue taste greater sweet
ness. But above all his heart burns with a more delicious
love of God and springs with freer and more sublime
flights into the most inaccessible heights of the divinity."
CHAPTER VIII
THE EXCHANGES BETWEEN THE HEART OF
JESUS AND OUR HEARTS
ON one Good Friday St. Mechtilde asked herself
what worthy thanksgiving she could give to our
Lord for His wounds, especially for that in the
Sacred Heart. "What kind of thanksgiving ought we to
offer Thee, dearest Lord, for being wounded on the Cross
for men, when love pierced Thy compassionate Heart with
the arrow of an invincible charity? What shall we do
when blood and water gushed forth to cure us, and when
Thou didst die the death of love vanquished by the love
Thou bearest Thy Spouse ?"
Our Lord replied: " Let man conform his will to Mine,
and in all and above all let My will be everything to him."
And our Lord added: " I tell thee truly I accept tears
shed over My Passion, as if they were death suffered for
Me."
O Jesus, shall the tears of my eyes be as precious to
Thee as the blood of Thy Heart ?
" What shall I do, Lord, to obtain these tears ?" Our
Lord replied: " I will teach thee. Think first of the love
and friendliness with which I went forth to meet My
enemies. They sought to kill Me with swords and clubs,
as though I were a robber and a malefactor, and I went
to meet them as a mother goes before her son to save him
from the fangs of the wolf. Then, as they struck Me
without pity, I returned their blov\s with as many
affectionate kisses to those who should be saved through
the merits of My Passion to the last day. Afterwards,
while they scourged me so cruelly, I prayed so efficaciously
for them to My Heavenly Father that many of them were
26
THE HEART OF JESUS AND OUR HEARTS 27
converted. When they pressed the crown of thorns on
My head, I counted the thorns that pierced Me, so that
I might place as many precious stones in their crown.
When they nailed Me to the Cross and stretched out
My Body so that My bones and sinews could be counted,
I employed My divine power to draw to Myself the souls
of those that were predestined to eternal life. This was
to accomplish what I had already said: ' When I shall be
lifted up I shall draw all things to Myself.' When at
last the spear opened My side, I drew from My Heart a
life-giving drink for all those who had drunk of death in
Adam. I caused them to become children of eternal
life and salvation in Me who am Life."
How beautiful are these words ! The Sacred Heart
of Jesus embraces souls when Judas came to give Him a
traitorous kiss ! The Sacred Heart prays for those who
scourge Him. The Sacred Heart exchanges the thorns of
His Crown for precious stones for ours ! But the last words
are especially delightful. We have all drunk of the cup
of Adam's heart and we have in our veins an impure,
tainted blood, full of pride and the rebellion of concu
piscence, passion, sin and death, but from the cup of the
Sacred Heart we drink of a precious Blood, full of
humility, obedience, sanctity, and eternal life. Let us
drink our fill.
CHAPTER IX
HOW OUR LORD PIERCED MAGDALEN'S REAM
DURING THE PASSION
FAITHFUL souls followed our Lord when the
disciples took flight. Later on, the Sacred Heart
was to ask for consolation to repair so many injuries
and so much ingratitude, but first it loaded them with
great graces. The most highly privileged was St. Mary
Magdalen : she was also the most loving.
On the day of St. Mary Magdalen's feast, Mechtilde
saw our Lord sweetly folding the humble penitent to
His Sacred Heart. Mechtilde was astonished, remember
ing the words, " and incorruption bringeth near to God "
(Wisd. vi. 20) and here was Magdalen ! But our
Lord reassured Mechtilde : " The intensity of love that
she bore Me on earth," He said, " is the measure of the
union which associates her with Me in heaven."
And Mechtilde cried: "Oh, dearest Lord, teach me
how I may praise Thee as the loving Saint does." Our
Lord replied: " You must do it in the five wounds that
love imprinted in her soul at the time of My Passion.
When I was hanging on the Cross and near the end,
seeing My eyes, which had so often looked with mercy
on her, about to close in death, Magdalen's heart was
pierced as with a sharp arrow. She also saw death about to
close My ears which had so often listened to her petitions ;
she witnessed the sorrow and tears of My Mother whom
she tenderly loved for My sake. She then received
another wound in her breast which was moved by com
passion. She then saw My lips, which had so often said
kind words to instruct and console her, above all those
words ' Thy faith has made thee safe, go in peace '
28
ST. MART MAGDALEN'S HEART 29
(Luke vii. 50), grow white in death and become incapable
of speech. She again felt her heart pierced. Shortly
afterwards, seeing My Heart and being moved again to
great love for Me, her heart was pierced again. And at
last, when she saw Me, her life, her joy and all her treasure,
without whom she seemed unable to live, dead and laid
in the tomb, her soul dying, so to speak, by the violence
of its love, succumbed under inexpressible sorrow."
Mechtilde saw Magdalen standing before our Lord.
Her burning heart shone with the brightness of the sun
and illumined her whole body. Heaven showed her that
this fire had been kindled in Magdalen's heart for the first
time when she heard Christ say: " Thy sins are forgiven
thee, go in peace " (Luke vii. 50). It was so strong in
her that from that time all her thoughts and actions
were changed into it. Mechtilde also understood that
in every soul consumed by divine love all its actions,
thoughts, or sufferings, like branches thrown into the
fire, are changed into the fire of love and increase it con
stantly by feeding it. If also other combustible matter,
such as venial sin, is thrown in it is also consumed and
destroyed. This soul would be entirely aflame, and on
leaving the body the evil spirits would not dare to
approach it. But they who are not burning with this
fire, I mean divine love, whatever they may do, will not
be able to destroy their sins. The evil they do will
weigh them down and be a heavy load at the hour
of death.
According to this doctrine, with what a great love must
Magdalen's heart have been filled 1 This holy fire had
been enkindled on the day she was forgiven, but it had
grown every day while she followed Jesus, listened to
His words, and imitated His virtues. What had it become
after she had received the five wounds in her heart at
the time of the Passion ? What was it after our Lord's
appearance to her on the morning of the Resurrection ?
30 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
What was it at the end of Magdalen's life after her long
years of penance in the Cave of St. Baume ?
She is one of the lovers of the Sacred Heart and her
mission is to gain for it disciples from amongst the lost
sheep. And Mechtilde teaches us how it is done: " She
seemed to see, springing from our Lord's feet, two trees
covered with leaves and fruit, signifying the fruits of
penance that Magdalen gathered, and distributed with
joy to all who sought her help." Mechtilde understood
that she had obtained at our Lord's feet the privilege
of obtaining for all those who invoked her the gift of true
repentance, and St. Mary Magdalen said to her: " Every
one who gives thanks to God for the tears I shed over the
feet of Christ, and for my having washed those sacred feet
and wiped them with my hair; and who praises Him for
the love He then poured into my soul and heart, so in
flaming me that I could never again love anything else;
and begs tears of true repentance and the infusion of
divine love, will see our Lord listen willingly, because of
my merits, to his pious requests. Before death his sins
will be forgiven and he will increase in the love of God."
Sinful souls who have sullied your hearts like Magdalen,
do you not feel great comfort in hearing such words ?
You, too, can reach the Heart of God. You can also burn
with the same love as Magdalen and receive the same
wounds !
Prayer to St. Mary Magdalen.
I give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the
living God, for all the tears that Blessed Mary Magdalen
shed at Thy feet, for washing them with her hands,
wiping them with her hair, and for the love with
which Thou didst so entirely inflame her body and soul,
filling her heart so that she never loved any other thing
than Thyself. Therefore, I beg of Thee, Lord Jesus,
that by her great merits Thou wouldst grant me the tears
PRATER TO ST. MARY MAGDALEN 31
of true repentance and fill me with Thy divine love, so
that before death all my sins may be forgiven by Thee,
Jesus, Saviour of the World, King of glory, who livest
and reignest with the same God, Father and Holy Spirit,
world without end. Amen.
CHAPTER X
THE SACRED HEART AT THE TIME OF OUR
LORD'S DEATH
E^E led our Divine Lord in the way of sorrow and
kept Him in it until death.
St. Mechtilde asked our Lord how it was that He
had expired so quickly, after three beats of His divine
Heart. He answered her: "When in a transport of joy
the Holy Trinity created My soul, the Three Divine
Persons at once surrounded it with Their ineffable love
and poured Themselves entirely into it, thus giving to
My soul all They possessed — the Father, His almighty
power; the Son, His uncreated wisdom; The Holy Spirit,
His goodness and love. Then My soul possessed by grace
what the Divinity possesses by nature. At that moment
the divine and eternal desire which the Holy Trinity had
always entertained to unite human nature to the Divinity,
in order to redeem man, filled My soul with, a great love
and urged it to accomplish the task. Also, in the divine
wisdom, I understood with a perfectly clear vision the
glory of My humanity and the task it had undertaken, in
consequence of which I had to devote Myself unsparingly
to the salvation of men. To Me the thought was the
cause of a divine joy which filled My whole being. The
infusion of the merciful love which came from the Holy
Spirit into My soul disposed and animated it so effectively
towards the salvation of mankind that the burden seemed
to it full of sweetness. From the moment of My concep
tion by the Holy Ghost, when My soul was united to
My body, this divine desire was controlled by almighty
power, and the joy by divine wisdom, and the strength
of its love was sweetened by the unction of the Holy
LOVE BREAKS THE SACRED HEART 33
Spirit, and in this way I was able to retain the breath of
My temporal life. But when the moment of My death
drew near, this all-powerful, wise and merciful love, which
at the beginning had caused my heart to beat with so
much violence, yielded to the superior strength of the
divinity and allowed free course to My desire and joy.
My heart was then possessed by a love that may not be
compared to any other, for it was greater than all other
loves. The separation of My soul from My body, which
no other hardships^ could have caused, was its work."
We learn from this that our Lord's life was only
possible because His love was suppressed. His death
therefore was caused by His love being allowed complete
sway. The Sacred Heart could not contain it. It broke,
and on the blood-stained bed of the Cross Jesus, like His
Mother, died of love only.
CHAPTER XI
THE GLORIFICATION OF THE SACRED HEART
THE Sacred Heart had been pierced by the lance,
the last drops of blood had flowed, the body of the
great Victim had been taken down from the Cross,
embalmed with sweet spices, enclosed in the tomb
belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, and secured by the
seals of the High Priest.
At the dawn of the third day the holy soul of our
divine Lord was reunited to the mangled body and
brought with it all the privileges of a glorious resurrec
tion, brightness, agility, subtilty, and impassibility.
The risen Jesus will sit at the right hand of His Father,
but how shall His Sacred Heart be glorified ? " The
glorification of My Heart consisted in this, that God
the Father gave Me all power in heaven and on earth.
By this gift I became all-powerful in My humanity as
well as in My divinity. I could reward, honour and
elevate My friends and prove My love for them with
perfect freedom. The glorification of My eyes and ears
gave Me the power to penetrate fully into all the needs
and sorrows of My faithful ones, and to hear and grant
their desires and prayers. My entire body received the
power as a privilege of this glory, to be everywhere present
in My humanity, as I am in My divinity with all and each
of My friends, wherever I wish, a privilege that no other,
however powerful, either has obtained, or could obtain."
In this way the glorification of the Sacred Heart is a
power at the service of its friends, and it sees all their
needs wherever they are. The glorification of the Sacred
Heart is again the work of Love.
But what were the special joys of this adorable Heart
when it began again to beat in the Holy Sepulchre,
34
GLORIFICATION OF THE SACRED HEART 35
Our Lord deigned to make them known to His humble
Spouse in giving her a foretaste of them even here below.
On Easter Sunday evening Jesus appeared to Mechtilde
and said to her : " This evening I am come to serve you all.
At your meal I would serve five different dishes.
" The first is the joy My divinity received on this day
from My humanity and My humanity from my divinity.
" The second, the joy I felt when in the place of all
the bitterness that love poured on Me during my Passion,
it now spread an immeasurable happiness and the fulness
of its joy through all my members.
" THe third, the joy I felt in offering to My Father
the most precious gift, in a transport of delight. I mean
My soul and all the souls I had just redeemed.
" The fourth, the joy I experienced when My Father
gave Me the power to honour, enrich and reward the
friends whom I had redeemed with so much pain and at
so great a cost.
" The fifth, the joy I felt in seeing My Father associate
with Me, in the everlasting glory of My throne, those
whom I had redeemed, making them coheirs with Me
and guests at My table. Other kings, after having dined
with their friends, leave them once the repast is over,
but My friends will remain with Me eternally.
" To everyone who shall remind Me of these joys,
for the first, provided he desires it before death, I will
give him a foretaste of My divinity. For the second, I
will give him the gift of knowledge. For the third, I will
offer his soul to My Father at the hour of his death. For
the fourth, I will share with him My labours and the
fruit of,all My sufferings, and for the fifth, I will associate
him in the happiness of the Saints."
It will be instructive to compare this revelation made
to St. Mechtilde in the thirteenth century with a page
written in the nineteenth by a learned and pious bishop
on the mysteries of the Heart of Jesus :
36 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
" To-day while giving Himself to God His Father,
and to His Church, Jesus takes possession of His Kingdom.
He is established king over Sion, His holy mountain
(Ps. ii. 6), and His reign is the reign of the light of truth,
which He spreads through the world, and by which He
subdues it. From His Heart, whence it originated and
where it is retained, this divine light spreads, glorifying
His body, and, with it, His Church.
" And so, for Jesus Himself, He must reign. He made
Himself servant to His Father; He delivered to Him the
kingdom He had conquered and the Father established
Him King. He had served souls in redeeming them,
and He gave Himself to them, and they gave themselves
to Him, acknowledging Him as their only Chief. Truth
is His kingdom, and truth is His love, which sanctifies
the world and becomes for ever its law.
" And such to-day is the part played by the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. It grows and spreads in itself, but it also
grows in the Church to which it communicates its life, its
holiness and its glory.
" Ah, what zeal fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus ! What
charity consumes it ! And yet it is always in peace and
accomplishes, with a calm joy, the sublime devotedness
of His life. Hitherto, His Heart only saw in God an
irritated Judge, now it finds in Him a Father, full of kind
ness. He saw humanity far from God, covered by its
sins, buried in death; now it rises with Him from the
tomb. He clothes Himself with our human nature as with
a mantle of glory, in order to appear a holy and eternal
High Priest, before His Father. His Heart feels the life
which abounds. He allows it to overflow and spread
abroad; this divine Heart expands; He lives, who was
dead; He triumphs, who was vanquished; He super-
abounds in joy, who was plunged in sadness, weariness
and fear. O Jesus, what happy moments ! O night,
what mysteries ! Happy Angels who behold all this,
when He renewed the living interchange of graces between
GLORIFICATION OF THE SACRED HEART 37
heaven and earth, when the soul, violently separated from
the body by death, was happily reunited to it by a secret
dispensation, after it had received the much-desired
baptism of death. Holy Angels who witnessed all this —
I unite myself to your adoration, to your love; I adore
and love with you.
" O Heart, how pure and holy thou art at this time !
May I dare to fix my gaze on thee ? — I, alas, who languish
and die in my sins. The Heart of Jesus, always holy,
always united to God, always rejoicing in the vision of
His face, receives now an increase of beatitude after
which He had long sighed. But, independently of what
He felt Himself, and of what He enjoyed as the personal
reward of His merits, He felt then all the happiness
which is experienced by the hearts of the elect when they
first come in contact with the divine Essence in the light
of glory. He saw, in that instant, what the Saints see
and shall see by Him, and He concentrated in one very
pure and perfect act of love what the Saints shall for ever
possess as the development and expression of the mysteries
of His life. Then, truly, arose in His Heart what God
has prepared for His Saints — glory and joy, ecstasies
and the delights abounding in the hearts of Angels,
patriarchs, prophets, apostles and the just of all times.
Jesus possessed all these concentrated in all their fulness
in His Heart.
" Oh, blessedness of heart ! never was any heart more
worthy of possessing it ! Jesus, Lord and God of heaven
and earth, we praise Thee, we bless Thee, we give Thee
thanks for having revealed Thy glory, for having clothed
Thyself with Thy divine attributes and for having at
length ascended that throne which Thou hadst seemed
to have abandoned ! When Jesus shall appear to me in
the glory of His resurrection, I shall be like Him, for I
shall see Him as He is, and my heart shall then be in His
Heart, inundated with His joys, which shall be mine."
(Mgr. Baudry, 256-268.)
CHAPTER XII
PRAISE AND SUPPLICATION— THE FIVE JOTS
OF THE HEART OF JESUS IN HIS
RESURRECTION
A the Sacred Heart has promised to reward those
who should honour the joys of His resurrection,
why should we not try to deserve those rewards ?
His devoted servant, Mechtilde, has drawn up a magnifi
cent prayer in honour of His joys. Let us say it with
her, especially during the Paschal octave:
" Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to
Thee, O good Jesus, for this ineffable joy, felt by Thee
in Thy blessed Humanity, when Thy Father gave it
divine glorification at Thy resurrection and conferred
on all the elect the eternal glorification of His divinity.
By this ineffable joy I beg of Thee, O loving Mediator
between God and man, to keejp for me in its integrity,
by Thy grace, this glory which Thou then gavest me, so
that I may meet it again at the day of Judgment. Amen.
" Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to
Thee, O good Jesus, for another ineffable joy. Thy
boundless charity drew Thee from the bosom of the
Father into this world where Thou didst submit to all
its pains and miseries. At Thy resurrection this joy
filled with unutterable happiness and gladness all Thy
members, which on the Cross had been wrung with
intolerable pain. By this unspeakable joy, I beg of Thee,
0 loving Mediator between God and man, to enlighten
my mind and make me understand my own soul, so that
1 may always know what is pleasing to Thee. Amen.
" Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to
Thee, O good Jesus, for a third ineffable joy. It was
38
PRAISE AND SUPPLICATION 39
felt by Thy holy soul when it presented itself to God
the Father as the price and pledge of eternal redemption,
followed by the numberless multitude of blessed souls
that it had then delivered from Limbo. By this great
joy, I beg of Thee, O loving Mediator between God
and man, to be the ransom of my soul at the hour of my
death, the sum that will pay all my debts, appease in my
favour God the Father, that just Judge, and conduct
me with joy into His presence. Amen.
" Praise, adoration, greatness, joy and blessing be to
Thee, O good Jesus, for another glorious joy. Thou
didst experience it when God the Father gave Thee full
power to reward, enrich and honour with Thy boundless
liberality all thy friends, companions in the fight, whom
Thou, in the midst of Thy glorious triumph, didst deliver
from a tyrannical power. By this marvellous joy, O
loving Mediator between God and man, I pray Thee
to let me participate in all Thy labours and sufferings,
and also in Thy glorious death and blessed resurrection.
Amen.
" Praise, adoration, greatness, glory and blessing be to
Thee, O good Jesus, for the last ineffable joy that Thou
hadst when Thy Father gave Thee all Thy friends for
Thy eternal inheritance and when that loving request
and desire was fulfilled, * I will that where I am, they
also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me '
(John xvii. 24). By this request all joy and all good,
which is Thyself, became their portion for ever. By
this delicious joy, O loving Mediator between God and
man, I beg of Thee to associate me with this blessed
compamy of Thy elect, so that I may possess Thee with
them, Thee, all my joy and my whole good, now and
in eternity. Amen."
CHAPTER XIII
LOVE BROUGHT BACK THE SON OF GOD
TO HEAFEN
ON the day of the glorious ascension of Christ, our
Saint found herself placed on a mountain. Love
appeared to her under the appearance of a very
beautiful virgin, who said to her: " I am she, whom thou
didst see on the night of the holy nativity of Christ,
surrounded with such splendour. It was I who caused
the Son to come down from His Father's bosom on to
the earth, and who now make Him to ascend into
heaven;" and Love, taking the Lord into her arms, held
Him up saying, " It is only in Thee that the plenitude
of my power is to be seen." What wonderful words !
It is not in the creation of the earth and the heavens that
God has manifested the power of His love, nor in the
creation of man, the masterpiece of His Hands, nor even
in Mary. Love raised Thee in her arms, O Mother of
God, Immaculate Virgin, full of grace, but she could not
say " In Mary I have shown all the fulness of my power."
No, it was necessary that Thou shouldst give it to Thy
Son, Jesus, our Brother, and our adorable Saviour.
The Lord Jesus ascending amidst an ineffable and
triumphant jubilation presents Himself before God the
Father. In His own person He offers to Him the souls
of all the elect, not only of those who had ascended with
Him, but also those who should do so later. He offered
the works of each, its sufferings and its merits. Those
who then were in a state of sin appeared each as they
would be one day in heaven. Loving souls who suffer
great things for Christ with patience shone in His Heart
with a particular brilliancy, and others shone in different
parts of His body.
40
THE SON OF GOD'S OFFERING 41
The Heavenly Father received His Son with the
greatest honour and said to Him: " I return to Thee the
boundless happiness Thou didst seem to abandon in
descending to the exile of the world, and I grant Thee
full power to communicate the same unreservedly to all
the souls whom Thou hast just now presented to Me."
Then our Lord Jesus offered to God the Father, in one
offering, all the poverty, humiliations, contempt, pains,
labours and other works of His sacred Humanity. It
was an offering very pleasing to God; never had such a
gift entered heaven. He offered to the Holy Spirit
the unheard-of love that had filled His most holy Heart
by spreading abroad the sweetest perfumes, the seven
gifts which the Holy Spirit had poured on Him, and
which He had caused to fructify so bountifully, for it is
really only in Christ that the Holy Ghost has been able
to make His gifts bear their fruit perfectly.
THE DEALINGS OF THE SACRED HEART
WITH MEN
CHAPTER XIV
THE SACRED HEART MEDIATES BETWEEN
GOD AND MAN
THE Sacred Heart is the mediator between God
and man. From the first moment of His Incarna
tion, His Passion was always in the Heart of Christ
and He offered it unceasingly to His Father: Christi
passio, quee ejus Cordi semper exstitit intima, quam adhuc
Patri repr&sentat, -pro homine incessanter interpellate."
Our Lord in heaven continues to intercede for us. He
shows His eternal Father the wounds in His feet and
hands and above all the wound in His Sacred Heart.
To-day, therefore, our Lord exercises the office of
Mediator for each one of us. What a countless number
of clients — all sinners, those in misery and suffering, and
the dying, struggling in their agony ! If the divine
Pleader has a few good causes to sustain, how many are
bad, nearly desperate ? What solicitude He must show
and what resources He must make use of, not only before
God, but as to His unhappy clients. Who would not
wish to see the Sacred Heart exercising this office ? How
meek, humble and patient, and especially merciful, He
must be ! St. Mechtilde had this great happiness, and
she can describe to us the solicitude and vigilant love
of our Mediator in His multiform and delicate ministry.
This mediation may be considered in reference to His
Father and in reference to us.
4*
THE SACRED HEART MEDIATES 43
In reference to His Father, it satisfies all the require
ments of His justice.
" To me," said Jesus, " are confided the concerns of
men and I am their Mediator with the Father. A faith
ful servant collects carefully his master's income, and if
he finds a deficit he supplies it from his own substance.
In this way I offer the good gained by man's industry to
My Father, increased a hundredfold; and wherever there
is any imperfection, I supply for it, so that I may present
to My heavenly Father, before all the Saints, the soul of
man enriched with the most precious graces."
So great a generosity on the part of our divine Mediator
fills us with astonishment. Not only does He pay our
debts, but He wishes to enrich us ! How this conduct
of His Sacred Heart disconcerts our souls, always inclined
to distrust ! But He insists still further: " Come, let us
see, do you not think Me sufficiently rich to pay all your
debts?" To which Mechtilde replied: "Yes, Lord, I
am certain Thou canst."
Our Lord: "Am I not rich enough to forgive and
supply for all thy omissions ?"
She replied: " Yes, Lord, I know that nothing is im
possible to Thee." " Therefore," said our Lord, " I will
answer fully and entirely for thee to My Father. I will
offer for thee first that holy time, those nine months
which I passed in My virginal Mother's womb. I will
offer it for the time when thou, enclosed in thy mother's
womb and stained with original sin, wert incapable of
receiving My grace. I will then offer My holy birth for
thy birth when, not yet regenerated in the baptismal
font, thou wert estranged from Me.
" Then, I will offer the first days of My life, so pure,
before I spoke, and those of My infancy, for the ignorance
in which thou didst pass the same age. I will also offer
the fervent desires of My childhood and youth to atone
for the negligences of thine.
44 ?HE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
" I will offer the whole of My holy and perfect life on
earth, with the fruit of My Passion, overflowing with
My love, for all thy sins of commission and omission.
In that way, in Me and by Me, all that thou standest
in need of shall be supplied."
O infinite justice of God, exact from me as rigorous
an account of all my iniquities and excesses as Thou wilt.
I am not reduced to the Prophet's helplessness: Si ini-
quitates observaveris Domine, Domine quis sustinebit?"
Behold the Heart of Jesus ; from it, pay Thyself for all my
debts. Thou wilt not exhaust my treasure; with the
surplus I dare ask Heaven of Thee, and Heaven is Thyself.
CHAPTER XV
IN WHAT MANNER THE SACRED HEART
EXERCISES THE OFFICE OF MEDIATOR
TOWARDS US
CONSIDERED from our point of viewthe mediation
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is of immense value.
It is extended to all men, in all stations, in all their
needs and misfortunes. The works of the Heart of Jesus
fill the whole world ! Its office is universal — everything
lives, everything breathes, everything prospers, through
it. Truth, grace, glory, all are from it, and its office is
not a transient one which may fail and disappear, but is
a fixed and permanent state,
Such is the Heart of Jesus, universal source of all that
is good, beautiful, just, holy, under all forms, in every
time, in all places, and of it one may say that the
entire universe is full of its magnificence (Mgr. Baudry,
295).
St. Mechtilde recognized this magnificent prerogative
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Over and over again she
declares that all comes from Him, on earth and in heaven.
He is the universal treasure from which come pardon,
life and glory. One day our Lord tried to make her
understand this sublime office by an almost trivial com
parison. It was to reward her for an act of humility.
She had just received a wonderful grace, but, recognizing
her lowliness, she exclaimed with a profound contempt
for herself:
" O most generous King, so sublime a gift is unfit
for me. I am * unworthy to wash the dishes in Thy
kitchen.' " Our Lord lovingly replied : " What dost thou
call My kitchen and what are the dishes thou wouldst
wash ?"
45
46 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
Mechtilde, not knowing what to say, was silent. Our
Lord, who sometimes raises a question so that He may be
able to answer it Himself, at once said: " My kitchen is
My divine Heart. The kitchen is a public room open
to all, to slaves and to free. So My Heart is open always
to all and disposed to grant to all what they desire. The
chefoi this kitchen is the Holy Spirit : in His inexhaustible
liberality and with His sweet and priceless gifts He con
tinually fills My Heart, and He fills it to overflowing. The
vessels into which it overflows are the hearts of the Saints
and of My elect, which are continually being filled with
a wonderful sweetness from My divine Heart."
Therefore we see the Heart of Jesus is open to all
men, and thither they must go to seek nourishment for
their souls and true happiness of heart, Cujuslibet delecta-
mentum. To express more clearly this precious attribute
our Lord often had recourse to a similitude not less
striking. " I offer you My Heart," He said one day to
Mechtilde, addressing all her sisters through her, " I
offer you My Heart," and at once she saw Him holding
His Heart in His breast like a cup, and in this cup were
gathered three organ pipes which signified the three
dispositions of the divine Heart of our Lord on earth,
dispositions in which He wished all to be who had recourse
to His Heart.
First, the Heart of Christ was towards His Father full
of reverence^and Jove. Secondly, the Heart of Christ
was towards men full of mercy and charity. Thirdly,
the Heart of Christ was in itself full of humility and
abjection*
And our Lord said to all who approached His Heart:
" Drink and be inebriated, My dear friends." Mechtilde
wished that all in heaven, on earth and in purgatory
might share in this grace and come to drink at this sources
Our Lord therefore offered His Heart to all these person!
in the Church militant as well as in the Church triumph-
THE CUP OF THE SACRED HEART 47
ant, that they might drink so delicious a draught. The
Saints in heaven took long draughts from this Heart of
sweetness and the joys of beatitude, while the children
of the Church militant drank from it the waters of
mercy, After which our Lord said : " I will drink of
the hearts of all who drink of My Heart."
May we not make a comparison between this cup of
the Sacred Heart and the cup the Psalmist speaks of ?
" I saw," he says, " in the hand of God a cup filled with
three liquids (Calix in manu Domini vini meri plenus
mixto): First there is the pure wine (vini meri)^ then
the wine mixed (plenus mixto), and lastly the dregs
(verumtamenfcex ejus non est exinanita)" (Ps. Ixxiv. 7, 8).
What is signified by the pure wine ? Eternal joy, joy
mixed with no evil nor with any bitterness. What is
signified by the dregs but the pains of the lost, pains
alleviated by no sweetness? And what is signified by
the mixed wine but good and evil, whose nature can be
changed according to us in this present life ? (Bossuet.)
This cup which our Lord holds in his hand is the cup
of His justice; and it is justice itself which pours in the
three liquids, signifying the good of heaven, the evil of
hell and the good and evil in this present life. But the
cup which the Man-God hides in His breast is the cup
of mercy whose waters wash the sinners of the earth,
purify the stained souls in purgatory, and slake the thirst
of the Saints in heaven.
O my God, I do not desire to drink of the cup of justice
which is in Thy hand, but of the cup of mercy hidden in
Thy Heart, Da mihi bane aquam. I leave the first for
sinners who reject Thee, O Sacred Heart of Jesus : Bibent
omnes feccatores terrce.
From this teaching we learn that the Heart of Jesus is
a mediation for all. To contemplate Him exercising
this merciful function we must adopt some plan. The
different subjects seem indicated to us by the diversity
48 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
of cases this Divine Mediator must plead for, the wants
He must supply, the unfortunate He must help. The
Sacred Heart of Jesus has among His clients, sinners, the
just and souls consecrated to Him. He meets them at
prayer, at the tribunal of penance, at the Holy Table and
at Holy Mass. He leads them to a bed of pain, to the
agony of death, to the flames of purgatory and at last to
heaven. Volumus videre Jesum. O that we could see
the designs of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with His own
in all these different circumstances !
CHAPTER XVI
THE SACRED HEART IS THE SOURCE OF THE
DIVINE LIFE WHICH WE RECEIVE
IN BAPTISM
THE Christian by baptism becomes a member of
Jesus Christ. Consequently he ought to live His
life and look upon himself as another Jesus Christ,
whether he works, rejoices or suffers. Every Christian
ought to say with St. Paul : " I live, now not I, but Christ
liveth in me."
The source and principle of this life is in the Sacred
Heart. One day St. Mechtilde was giving thanks for the
work of our Redemption. Having come to the part
where she thanked Him for having been baptized for us,
our Lord said to her, " I will baptize thee," and there
upon a great wave coming from the divine Heart seemed
to inundate her soul. Then our Lord said: " I will also
be thy godfather, and as godparents instruct their god
daughters I will teach thee three things.
" The first is to bear all sufferings corporal and spiritual
not for thyself, but for Me, as if I bore them in thee.
" The second is to accept all blessings and all the
services rendered to thee by men, with joy and gratitude,
as if they were done for Me, and not for thee.
"/The third is to live entirely for Me, so that thou dost
look on thy works as belonging to Me and not to thee,
seeing in thyself only a garment, with which I cover
Myself to execute and direct all thy actions."
This intimate union, established between the soul and
God in baptism, is called a participation in the divine
nature: Consortes divince natures. Two comparisons in
turn are employed to express the consequences and fruits
49 4
50 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
of this union; one is borrowed from St. Paul, and the
other from our Blessed Lord.
To become a Christian is to put on Jesus Christ. So
our Lord tells St. Mechtilde that the soul becomes His
covering. To express the same thought St. Paul says
that Jesus Christ covers the soul. "Put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ," he writes to the early Christians (Rom. xiii.
14) ; " walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called
with all humility and mildness, with patience supporting
one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. iv. 23); "for as
many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on
Christ" (Gal. iii. i).
But where are prepared those Christian virtues which
form, so to say, the garment or nuptial robe of the
Christian ? In the Heart of Jesus. Our good Mother
will take them from there to clothe us.
Mechtilde one day begged this virgin Mother to obtain
for her purity of mind and body. Then our Blessed
Lady appeared to her, standing before our Lord, and she
took a white garment from the divine Heart which she
gave to her. Mechtilde wished to put it on, but a troop
of demons stood on the right and on the left to prevent
her wearing it. She then invoked our Blessed Lady,
begging for her assistance, and at once she placed herself
before the demons, covering Mechtilde with her shadow,
and the devils disappeared. Mechtilde was then able
to put on the white garment taken from the Sacred Heart
of Jesus.
Not only purity is to be found in this divine source,
but all other yirtugs.^
" I will Myself prepare thy garments, My beloved,"
said our Lord to His Spouse, " and I will clothe thee with
them. Knowest thou not that worms spin the silk, and
it is written of Me, ' I am. ~a worm and no man ' ? (Ps. xxi.).
I will spin garments for thee, out of My tender love,
THE SACRED HEART A SPRING OF LIFE 51
and if thou canst not wear them alone, we will bear them
together. Up to this present time, thou hast served Me
devotedly in thy labours : in future thou shalt serve Me
in practising the virtues of which I have given thee an
example."
What a gracious image ! The silkworm winds around
its body its precious thread and finds in it its death,
and the covering of this poor little creature becomes an
ornament for kings and queens. He who was as despicable
as a worm covered Himself with all human virtues. He
died in that covering and calls us from the Cross to cover
our nakedness with it.
The second comparison, which symbolizes the union of
the baptized soul with the divine nature, is employed by
our Lord Himself:
" I am the vine, you are the branches; he that abideth
in Me the same beareth much fruit " (St. John xv.).
The branch united to our Lord is fruitful, it spreads out,
and becomes a vine for the Beloved. Vinea dilecto.
" Oh," exclaimed St. Mechtilde, " would that my heart
could always be a vine pleasing to Thy Heart." To which
our Lord replied: " I can accomplish all that thou
desirest," and it was revealed to her that the just man
was God's vine and that God found pleasure in him who
from his infancy until his death had sanctified his life
for God. In the centre of the vineyard was a fountain
and, near it, God was seated on a throne. From His
Heart rushed a torrent of water into the fountain which
our Lord made to overflow on those who longed for their
own spiritual regeneration.
So we see the soul of the just man is like a vine watered
by water flowing from the Sacred Heart. Under the
similitude of wine, our Lord presents to us the works
produced by His beloved vine. Works offered to God in
infancy are like very pure wine and exceedingly sweet.
The labour which a young man undertakes in order to
52 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
resist sin and temptation and the power of the enemy of
our soul is as wine, red and strong. The acts of virtue
accomplished by a man in his prime, for the love of God,
are as wine, warm and very good. Then the different
desires which tend to make a man aspire with all his
strength to God and heavenly things, as also the pains
and troubles of all sorts which ordinarily come to sadden
old age, are like wine, as generous as nectar.
The vine that is planted in good ground and well
exposed to the rays of the sun produces a more exquisite
wine and is worthy of being served at a king's table. The
same may be said of the vine of our hearts when it is
warmed with the sun of charity.
" What wine do I give Thee to drink, my Beloved,
when I pray for Thy friends ?" Jesus answered Mechtilde,
saying, " A very generous wine capable of making My
Heart rejoice, as it is written : ' Wine may cheer the heart
of man ' " (Ps, liii.). " And when I pray for sinners ?"
" A very pure wine, sweeter than honey in the comb,
thou presentest to Me when thou prayest for My enemies,
who are in a state of damnation, so that they may be
converted from their evil ways." " And when I pray for
the dead ?" " Thou givest Me a wine which always
rejoices My Heart when thou prayest for these souls,
so dear to Me, so that they may be delivered from their
pains."
We can therefore give to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
invitation for invitation. He says to us: " Come, eat My
bread and drink the wine which I have mingled for you
(Ps. ix. 5). Eat, My friends, drink and be inebriated,
My dearly beloved."
And we, in our turn, little chosen vines of the Master,
may call thee, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to drink the wine
we have prepared for Him. Inebriate Thyself, O Lord,
with these prayers; these good works offered for Thy
friends, for sinners and for souls who suffer far from Thee.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MEANS OF LEADING A CHRISTIAN LIFE
MUST BE SOUGHT IN THE SACRED HEART
THE prophet said: " You will draw waters of joy
from the Saviour's fountains."
These holy fountains signify His wounds, and
especially that in His Sacred Heart. A Christian must
always be striving to approach nearer to this inexhaustible
fountain and to draw from it the water which flows unto
eternal life. Our Lord says to each one of us : " Enter
and travel through My divine Heart, see its length and
breadth; its length is the eternity of My goodness, and
its breadth the love and the desire I have always had for
thy salvation. Consider this length and breadth — that is,
take possession of it, for all the good that thou dost find
in My Heart really belongs to thee."
Therefore the source of life, grace, virtue and holiness
is opened, and Jesus says : " Why should not a Christian
receive what I very willingly offer him ?" "I give him
readily the'treasure of the life I passed here on the earth
in innocence and sanctity ;;let him take it for himself and
seek in it a compensation for all his needs." Mechtilde
replied: " If thou dost so much desire, my sweetest Jesus,
that we should appropriate all that is Thine, tell me, I
pray Thee, how it is to be done."
He replied: " Offer to God the Father all thy desires,
intentions and prayers in union with My desires and
prayers; all will unite and ascend to God, giving Him
pleasure, as several perfumes burnt together cause only
one column of smoke that rises straight to heaven. Any
other prayer, even though it should reach heaven, could
not be so pleasing to God."
53
54 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
" In the same way, if thou unitest thy labours and all
thy works with My labours and My works, all that thou
dost shall be ennobled; as brass melted with gold is no
longer a common metal but is changed into precious gold.
If a handful of wheat is thrown on to a heap of the same,
it is immediately identified with it, and so the works of
men, in themselves nothing, when joined to My works,
are multiplied and changed to their advantage.
" In the third place, regulate thy whole life — viz., thy
movements, strength, senses, thoughts, words, indeed
everything according to My way of living, from which
will result a new and a higher life. See a beautiful bird
which flies from a fetid marsh and poisonous air; it takes
a new life in better surroundings. So the earthly man,
in the life he has hitherto led, becomes heavenly in the
new life he receives, united with Me."
Therefore, beloved souls, let us receive with great
gratitude so great a favour from heaven. Let us take
possession of the most holy life of Christ to supply for
what is wanting in ours. Let us also study, according
to our ability, to conform ourselves to His virtues; this
will be our greatest glory, in our eternal home. What
glory could be greater than to approach, in some way,
the splendour of the eternal light ?
CHAPTER XVIII
MART'S ASSISTANCE WITH THE SACRED HEART
OUR blessed Lady is the Mother of baptized Chris
tians ; she is charged to develop in them the life
of her divine Son which they receive in baptism.
The Book of Special Grace shows us the solicitude of this
devoted Mother. Whether it is to develop His life in
us or to renew it, it is to the Heart of her Son that she
always leads us. Better than the Apostles, she under
stood those words at the Last Supper: " I am the vine,
you the branches, he that abideth in Me beareth much
fruit" (John xv.).
One Saturday while they were singing the Mass, Salve
Sancta Parens, Mechtilde saluted our Blessed Lady,
begging of her to obtain for her true holiness, and the
glorious Virgin answered her: " If thou desirest true
holiness, keep near my Son, who is holiness itself and who
sanctifies all things." Mechtilde asked how she was to
carry out this advice, and our Lady answered with great
kindness: " Keep before thee His holy infancy, that
thereby His innocence may supply for all the actions and
omissions of thy infancy. Keep before thee His fervent
youth, which was so full of love, that it alone would
suffice to enkindle the furnace of divine love; by it the
lukewarmness and idleness of thy youth shall be repaired.
Keep before thee His divine virtues, which will ennoble
and el'evate thy actions.
" Keep also my Son before thy eyes in directing to
Him all thy thoughts, words and actions. He who did
all things perfectly will efface all that is imperfect in them.
" Rely also on Him, as a spouse relies on her husband;
she is fed and clothed at his expense, and for love of him
55
56 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
she cherishes and honours his family and friends. The
soul must be nourished by the word of God, as by the
choicest food; it must be clothed and adorned carefully
with what pleases Him — ?'.<?., with the example of His
virtues, which it should strive to imitate. It should
make His family its own — that is, His Saints — love them,
praise God on their account and incite them often to
praise its Beloved with it. In this way will the soul also
be holy according as it is written, * With the holy thou
wilt be holy ' (Ps. xviii. 26), in the same way as a queen
is queen because she participates in the dignity of the
king."
To keep with Jesus, that is the secret of all holiness;
to keep with Jesus in all the vicissitudes of our life, with
Him in the mysteries of His infancy, of His youth, of
His life and death, of His resurrection and glory. Happy
he who understands this secret ! He will soon attain,
and without great efforts, to a Christian life even in its
perfection.
It is certain that some day or other great obstacles
may arise on the narrow way that leads to heaven, but
the Sacred Heart will be with us to enable us to over
come them. There is, above all, one that we shall escape
easily, if we remain constantly faithful to Him, according
to our Lady's recommendation, and that is, taking pride
in ourselves. The Heart of Jesus throws so much light
on our soul and its imperfections that we shall escape
this natural satisfaction and pride and the indolence
which results from it.
The servant of God was one day forced to complain
to our Blessed Lady of an obstacle she thought would
prevent her progress in the service of God. The Blessed
Mother said to her: " Go and present thyself to my Son
respectfully."
She then prostrated herself at our Saviour's feet, and
on rising she saw upon His breast what appeared to her
THE WATERS OF ETERNAL LIFE 57
to be a very brilliant mirror; and from this there seemed
to come forth other mirrors which covered the whole
of His sacred Person. She understood this to mean
that all the members of Christ in their various operations
shine before us like mirrors, and that all these operations
proceed from the love of His Heart.
His feet, which are His desires, burn for us; He must
see how cold are our desires for spiritual things, and how
helpless for human things.
The knees of Christ are for us mirrors of humility.
They were bent so often for us in prayer, and also when
He washed His Apostles' feet. In this we can recognize
our pride, which prevents us from humbling ourselves,
though we are but dust and ashes.
The Heart of Christ is for us a mirror of the most
burning love where we may see clearly the coldness of
our own hearts towards God and our neighbour.
The mouth of Christ is for us a mirror of sweet words,
full of praise and thanksgiving. We can recognize by
it the worthlessness of our words and the omissions of
which we are guilty in divine praise and in prayer.
The eyes of our Lord are for us the mirrors of divine
truth; in them we may see the darkness caused by our
unfaithfulness, which prevents us from knowing the truth.
The ears of our Lord are for us the mirrors of obedience,
for He was always ready to obey God His Father and to
listen to our prayers.
The baptized soul must therefore love the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, if it wishes to live the divine life of which it
received the seed in the waters of baptism. From this
Sacred Heart flow the waters of eternal life. Mechtilde
saw these precious waters rush out and flow over souls.
She called them now a river, then a stream, and again
a spring; but the river, the spring and the stream were
able to purify all souls.
The river, she says, flows from the Heart of Jesus,
58 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
inundating souls, penetrating them entirely, chasing away
sadness and spreading around the joy of the City of God.
The little stream from the Heart of Jesus hides itself
in the baptismal waters in order to flow over all those who
receive spiritual regeneration. The humble spring of
living and limpid waters flows gently from the Sacred
Heart into souls full of love for Him.
CHAPTER XIX
THE CHURCH ENSHRINED IN THE SACRED
HEART
MY beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful
place, and he fenced it in, and picked the stones
out of it and planted it with the choicest vines,
and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a wine
press therein, and he looked that it should bring forth
grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now ye
inhabitants of Jerusalem and ye men of Juda, judge
between me and my vineyard. What is there that
I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done
to it ? For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the
house of Israel, and the man of Juda, His pleasant plant,
and I looked that he should do judgment and behold
iniquity " (Isaias v.).
The vineyard of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the holy
Catholic Church, which He founded in His blood and in
His love on the tree of the Cross. It has given abun
dantly the fruits of sanctity, chastity and all virtues.
This gracious allegory is beautifully developed in the
Book of Special Grace.
One Sunday, while they were singing the Asperges me^
Mechtilde said to our Lord: " My Lord, with what wilt
Thou presently purify my soul ?"
At once our Lord, with an inexpressible sweetness of
love, stooped towards her as a mother might to her son,
and took her into His arms, saying: " It is with the love
of My divine Heart that I will wash thee."
He opened the door of His Heart, that treasury of
divine compassion, and she entered as into a vineyard.
She there saw a river of living water flowing from east
59
60 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
to west, on the banks twelve trees bearing twelve fruits;
they were the virtues enumerated by St. Paul in his
epistle — viz., charity, peace, patience, joy, etc. (Gal. x.22).
The river was the river of love. The soul entered into
this vineyard and was at once cleansed from all its stains.
Our Lord said to her: " My vineyard is also the Catholic
Church. I laboured in it with pain and sweat during
thirty- three years; come and work with Me in this
vineyard." Mechtilde replied: "And how shall I do
this?" Our Lord answered: "By watering." At once
Mechtilde rushed to the river. To work in our Lord's
vineyard is therefore to water it with the waters drawn
from the river of love.
To show men how much God loves them, or even to
increase that love in their hearts, is truly God's work, and
that of His Son, Jesus; it must therefore be the object
of all our efforts with the souls who are subject to us.
Our Lord showed Mechtilde the souls of those who
are members of the Church under different similitudes
according to their dispositions. In this way, she saw
loving souls who had separated themselves from the
vanities of the world and plunged into the source of
all good, the Heart of Jesus Christ. She saw souls,
thoroughly Christian, who raised their thoughts to God
after having despised the world and its pleasures. She
also saw souls lying steeped in sin, some ready to repent
and others hardened in sin, rejecting God's grace. Let
us examine the tenderness of the Sacred Heart for each
and all these souls redeemed by His precious blood.
CHAPTER XX
THE SACRED HEART AND SINNERS
FROM the first moment of the Incarnation, the
Heart of Jesus offered for sinners the drops of
Precious Blood that He had just received from the
Immaculate Heart of His Mother. An ardent desire
to shed this blood then took possession of His Sacred
Heart and became a real agony (coarctor). This abiding
desire explains why forgiveness, with so much delicacy,
was so easily granted to Magdalen, to the woman taken
in adultery, to the Samaritan, to Zacheus and to the
paralytic. But if love, according as it is bestowed, makes
of us either Saints or sinners, what shall the immense
love which Jesus bears to sinners make of Him ? This
love makes Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world, the Good Shepherd who follows the
strayed sheep, the Father who receives the prodigal with
joy. The work of this love is eternal; it confirms the
Heart of Jesus in the three dispositions of which we have
already spoken. He is always the Victim slain for us.
He is always the Good Shepherd seeking His lost sheep.
He always rejoices, like the Father in the Gospel, at the
return of a repentant sinner.
These three dispositions of the Sacred Heart make us
thrill with hope when we realize them in the Holy
Gospels. Could we only realize them now in Jesus so
close to us, in the tabernacle ! Let us listen to the sweet
Saint who had the privilege, like St. John, of hearing the
beatings of the divine Heart.
61
CHAPTER XXI
THE SACRED HEART A PERPETUAL VICTIM
OUR Lord appeared one day to St. Mechtilde with
His Hands outstretched and His open wounds.
" When I was hanging on the Cross," He said,
" all My wounds were bleeding, each of them a voice
interceding with My Father for the salvation of men,
and they still cry to Him to appease His wrath against
sinners.
" As I, in My human nature, offered Myself to God the
Father with ineffable love, covered with blood, a victim
on the altar of the Cross, so with the same love I offer
Myself now to the Father for sinners, I present to Him
all the instruments of My Passion, for what I most desire
is that the sinner should be converted and live.'*
If this sinner is converted, the divine Victim thrills
with joy; but if he resists the graces offered by the Sacred
Heart, He feels the sad effects and seems to have found
an executioner.
" As long as a sinner remains in sin, he keeps Me
stretched and fastened to the Cross, but as soon as he is
converted and repentant he detaches Me, and as if I had
really been detached from the Cross I fall, with all my
weight on him, as formerly on Joseph of Arimathea, with
My grace and mercy; I give Myself into his hands, so
that he may do with Me as he will."
On leaving the banqueting hall Magdalen only carried
with her the assurance of her forgiveness; we, poor
sinners, may carry Jesus Himself.
CHAPTER XXII
IN HEAVEN THE SACRED HEART IS STILL THE
HEART OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
CAN anything more sweet or more touching be
imagined than the solicitude of the Good Shepherd
for His strayed sheep ? This solicitude is still as
great and as unwearying in the Heart of Jesus.
" I follow," He tells us, " this sinful soul ceaselessly,
and when it returns to Me, by repentance, desire or love,
I rejoice exceedingly. It is impossible to confer a
greater favour on a debtor than to bestow on him the
means to pay his debts : I have become, in a way, a debtor
to My Father, by undertaking to satisfy for the sins of
men, so I can wish for no greater joy than to see men
return to Me by repentance and love.'*
Not content with following the lost sheep Himself,
the Good Shepherd wishes to associate us with Him
in this ministry of salvation. Like St. Mechtilde, we
feel indignant with those who refuse our help and the
graces offered by Jesus. But He says to us, as to the
Sons of Zebedee: " You know not of what spirit you are."
" See, leave Me to act, and pray for these poor sinners
that I have bought with a great price and for whose
conversion I long so ardently. He who desires to pray
and be heard for those who are captive either in body or
in soul, by sin, let him pray to Me by the love of My
Heart; b^ that love which held Me captive nine months
in the Virgin's womb; by that love which bound Me in
swaddling clothes and delivered Me in fetters into the
hands of wicked men. Let him pray by the love which
bound Me in chains, when led by the Jews before the
judge; by the love which bound Me to the pillar to be
63
64 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
scourged; which nailed Me with so much shame to the
cross; which after death enveloped Me in a winding sheet.
By that love which bound Me in all these different
circumstances, let him beg of Me to deliver this captive
from the bonds of sin."
How powerful is this prayer for sinners ! One day
St. Mechtilde was soliciting ardently the conversion of
all those in a state of sin, and our Lord said to her: " Very
well ! For thy prayers I will convert a hundred sinners."
The Sacred Heart always rejoices over the Return
of Sinners.
Paternal love is the explanation of all we read in the
parable of the Prodigal Son, the joy with which the
Father receives his guilty child, the facility with which
he grants him forgiveness and reinstates him in all his
rights ! His son was dead, and his son is risen again. He
is like Jacob, happy in clasping to his breast Joseph his
well-beloved, whom he supposed devoured by wild
beasts !
If the Heart of Jesus feels a similar joy when a sinner
is converted it is because it is full of a love as great as
that of a father for his son. Nothing, He tells us, makes
Me so happy as to possess man's heart, which I enjoy so
rarely. I have everything in abundance, except man's
heart, which so often evades Me.
" But when this poor human heart is contrite and
broken with sorrow and cries out, ' I will arise and go
to my Father,' the Sacred Heart thrills with joy. I say
to thee, that no matter how great his sins may be, at that
same moment, if he sincerely repents, I forgive all his
sins, and My Heart inclines towards him with as much
mercy and sweetness as though he had never sinned."
" 6 depth really unfathomable !" adds St. Mechtilde.
THE DiriNE MERCT 65
" Oh, the depth of Thy wisdom and Thy mercy ! God
most clement, by so many different and admirable ways
Thou dost draw the hearts of sinners to Thyself; they
cannot then despair, since Thy paternal call is followed
by so much mercy,"
CHAPTER XXIII
THE INVITATIONS GIVEN BY THE SACRED
HEART TO THOSE WHO WISH TO DEVOTE
THEMSELVES TO ITS SERVICE
" T* HAVE chosen you," our Lord said to His Apostles.
" I have called you," He also says to the friends of
-*" His divine Heart. The reason of this choice and
of this call is the love with which He is consumed for us.
Oh, you who hear its voice, harden not your hearts, but
appreciate God's gift, and force yourselves to return Him
love for love. But how can we hear this voice, how
understand this language of the Sacred Heart ?
In an ecstasy, which raised Mechtilde out of herself,
she saw the King of Glory: Mary, the Queen of heaven,
was at His right: Mechtilde placed herself on the left,
then laying her head on the breast of Jesus she listened,
with the ears of her heart, to the violent and continual
beatings of the Sacred Heart of Christ.
The beatings of the divine Heart sounded as though
they would say to the soul: " Come and repent, come
and be reconciled, come and be consoled, come and be
blessed; come, friend, and receive all that one friend can
give another. Come, sister, and take possession of the
inheritance that I have bought with My Precious Blood.
Come, spouse, and rejoice in My divinity."
This delightful invitation was addressed not only to
the favoured Benedictine, but to all souls of good will.
This is proved in another divine communication : Leaning
her head on the breast of her Beloved, Mechtilde heard
three distinct beatings. Our Lord said to her: " These
three beatings signify three words I wish to address to
the loving soul. This is the first: * Come and separate
66
THE DIVINE INVITATION 67
thyself from creatures,' The second : ' Enter with the
confidence of a spouse.' The third: * Into the mystical
couch which is the divine Heart.' "
By these words she understood that God first calls the
soul chosen from all others, causes it to renounce all the
joy it could find here below and to attach itself to the
Lord its God with an entire devotedness. Then our
Lord fills it with confidence and the chosen soul, as a
spouse who never fears a refusal, full of assurance, goes
forward to the nuptial couch of His divine Heart, wherein
abounds and overflows all the happiness that the heart
of man could desire.
CHAPTER XXIV
WHAT: THE SACRED HEART WISHES
TO BE FOR US
THE Son of God deigns to lower Himself to each
of us. He stands at our door and knocks, saying:
" O son of man, give Me thy heart and receive
Mine." As soon as the soul answers, " Enter, O well-
beloved Lord," He takes possession of us, but by a happy
exchange we take possession of Him. " The bee," He
tells us, " does not fly with greater eagerness to the green
meadows than do I to thy soul when it calls Me. Now
My Heart is thine and thy heart is Mine." And in a
sweet embrace and by all His divine virtues He attracts
this soul so that it seems, in future, to be one with Him.
And what will be, for each one of us, this Heart which
only aims at giving itself and putting itself entirely at
our service) The passing union between the divine
Heart and ours at Holy Communion cannot satisfy us.
" O unparalleled sweetness, remain, I pray Thee, with
me; for the day of my life draws towards evening."
It was the wail of St. Mechtilde, and is also ours; but
listen to the reply of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
" I shall remain with thee as a Father with his son,
giving thee a share in the heavenly inheritance that I
acquired for thee during My thirty- three years on earth;
all that shall be given to thee and shall be thine. I shall
also be with thee as a friend with his friend: he who has
a faithful friend takes refuge with him in time of trial
and is devoted to him. So thou shalt always have in Me
the most faithful Friend, a safe refuge in all thy needs;
in thy weakness thou shalt lean on Me and I will always
come faithfully to thy assistance. I shall also be always
with thee as a Spouse with his spouse: between whom
68
WHAT THE SACRED HEART WISHES 69
there could be no separation, except through illness;
but if thou shouldst fall ill, thou wilt find in Me the most
skilful physician; I will cure thee of any sickness. So
there is no separation possible for us, but an eternal and
inseparable union. I will also be with thee as a traveller
with his companion. If one of them is laden with a
weight too heavy, the other immediately takes part of
the burden on himself, so will I, without fail, help thee to
carry all thy loads, which will then seem light to thee."
Who would not joyfully accept an alliance with such
advantages ? The Sacred Heart itself becomes our
Father, Friend, Spouse, Physician, Companion of our
journey to eternity, carrying with us the burden of life.
Mechtilde had heard before, several times, the nature
of this alliance. Our Lord said to her on different
occasions : " I give thee My soul, it will be thy companion
and guide, entrust it with all thou hast. When thou shalt
be in sorrow, it will console thee, and in all circumstances
it will be for thee a faithful helper."
Ashamed to have neglected this great favour, Mechtilde
cried out: " Alas, my Lord, life of my soul; forgive me,
Loving Guide, Noble Companion whom I have so rarely
invited to share my labours and whose aid I have not
sought when I ought to have done so."
Our Lord replied: "I forgive thee. My soul shall
remain with thee until the end of thy life; then it will
unite thee with the Divinity; as I, dying on the Cross,
remitted My Spirit into the hands of the Father, so it
will then offer thee to My heavenly Father."
* After this comforting assurance Mechtilde begged our
Lord to grant to a person who was her faithful friend
what He had just granted to her, and, at once, she saw
her before our Lord, and He taking her hands gave her
possession of all His goods.
O St. Mechtilde, pray also for us and obtain for us a
like favour !
CHAPTER XXV
THE SACRED HEART IS THE SOURCE OF
FERVOUR
JESUS made to St. Margaret Mary magnificent
promises in favour of persons who were devoted to
His Sacred Heart. Tepid souls were to become
fervent and fervent souls to reach a high perfection.
In the thirteenth century our Lord had already made
the same promises and verified them in those chosen by
His love.
St. Mechtilde had a tender devotion for the Heart
of Jesus. Often she happened, when tepid and less
fervent, to feel the divine Heart unite itself with her
heart, like liquid gold, and the approach of this fire pro
duced in her so much sweetness that she was soon glowing
with her accustomed great love.
" The love of the Sacred Heart watches with great
care over the souls that have consecrated themselves to
its service. Therefore whenever a man feels his devotion
diminished, his heart becoming cold, and perceives that
he has strayed from God, he ought to call on this Love,
entrust to it all his desires, praying it to obtain for him
the grace or zeal of true devotion. He should also beg
Love to guard all the good he does, and Love will preserve
it carefully in the casket of the divine Heart, returning
it faithfully to the soul, increased and ennobled. In all
his sorrows and trials let him call Love to his help. With
Love man feels not weakness and faints not in adversity."
The soul is therefore reanimated in fervour when it
casts itself into the Sacred Heart and calls on its burning
Love. And indeed, whatever may be the nature of the
weakness which overwhelms it, an efficacious remedy will
always be found for it in this Heart.
70
THE KINDLING OF FERVOUR 71
One day when Mechtilde was honouring the divine
wounds, she saw they were surrounded by precious stones,
and as she was astonished at this our Lord said to her:
"Precious stones possess great qualities and may sometimes
chase away great sickness; in the same way My wounds
are so efficacious that they drive away all languor from
men's souls. Some men have such weak, trembling
hearts that they never dare to trust in My tenderness and
they try to fly from Me. One would say they had the
palsy. If they would take refuge in My Passion, honour
ing tenderly My wounds, I would soon deliver them from
all fear. Others have restless, fickle hearts; they never
stop to think; at the smallest word they give way to im
patience or even anger. If they would recall My Passion,
if they penetrated their minds with the remembrance
of My wounds, they would acquire stability and find
patience. There are others who have a sleeping paralysis.
I mean all those who do all lazily and carelessly. They,
too, at the remembrance of My Passion and the con
sideration of the depth and pain of My wounds would be
aroused from their tepidity."
But of all our Saviour's wounds we must have special
recourse to that of His Heart.
Praying for a person under this spiritual torpor, Mech
tilde saw her soul in the divine Heart under the appear
ance of a little child. She tried to hold this divine
Heart in her hands. Our Lord said: " May she always
come to Me so in her sorrows, and may she cling to My
divine Heart, seeking there consolation, and I will never
abandon her."
CHAPTER XXVI
THE SACRED REAM AND ITS UNION WITH
SOULS
" IT TO my Beloved and my Beloved to me." These
I words of the Spouse in the Canticles express the
intimate union between Jesus and the faithful soul.
This union is the greatest desire of Jesus. " My delights
are," He tells us, " to be with the children of men."
It is also the greatest desire of the loving soul. " Thou
in me and I in Thee. Grant that we may eternally
remain so united." Who will give me, Lord, to be so
united with Thee that I may be absorbed in Thee so as
to forget myself ?
It is therefore the happiest of all days when Love says
to us, as to St. Mechtilde : " Enter into the joy of thy
Lord." Hearing this, she was rapt in God, and as a
drop of water mingled with wine is changed entirely into
wine, so this blessed soul, entering into God, became one
and the same spirit with Him. United thus she annihi
lated herself, but God raised her, saying: " I will pour
into thee all that a human heart can contain, and I will
increase My graces in thee as far as a creature can receive
them."
Love added: " Rest here, leaning on the Heart of Him
who loves thee. Be not uneasy in prosperity, taste in
peace the remembrance of all thy Beloved has done for
thee, so as to be without fear in adversity."
Every day, at the Altar, in the mystery of the Consecra
tion and the Communion, the marvellous fact of our
union with the Sacred Heart really takes place.
One day during Mass, Mechtilde saw numberless
graces flowing from the Heart of Jesus on faithful souls.
7*
THE SACRED HEARTS UNION WITH SOULS 73
She was seized with a great longing to see her own heart
plunged entirely into the divine Heart. At once, she
felt that it was thrown into this adorable Heart, as a fish
into the water.
In her ardent devotion she implored our Lord to teach
her what dispositions she should have in her heart so as to
remain in the happy union with which she was favoured.
At once, the Sacred Heart appeared to her as a beautiful
and spacious dwelling, and in this dwelling she saw a
smaller one.
" It is in this way," said our Lord, " that thy soul is
always enclosed in My Heart, and I in the heart of thy
soul. Thou possessest Me within thee and I am more
intimately united to thee than anything else can be,
and yet My divine Heart is so great and so superior to
thy soul that it seems unable to attain thereto."
Mechtilde also saw in this dwelling of the divine
Heart four beautiful Virgins. They were Humility,
Patience, Meekness and Charity, this last more beautiful
than the others. Our Lord said to her: " Strive to
become intimate with these Virgins and to obtain their
friendship if thou wilt remain with Me in this dwelling
of My Heart and enjoy My presence. When vanity shall
endeavour to weaken thy heart, remember My charity,
It was so strong that it drew Me from My rest in the
bosom of the Father, made Me descend into the Virgin's
womb, wrapped Me in swaddling clothes and laid Me
in a manger; it obliged Me to endure great labours and
to preach and finally made Me die a bitter and shameful
death. The remembrance of these things will drive
out all vanity from thy heart.
" In the same way, when thou shalt be tempted by
pride, remember My humility. It always prevented Me
from lifting Myself up, ever so little, in My thoughts,
words or actions. Instead, I always showed in all My
works an example of the most perfect humility.
74 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
" When inclined to impatience, remember My patience.
I kept it always in poverty, hunger and thirst, in My
wanderings and in the midst of injuries and insults, and,
above all, in death.
" In temptations to anger, in the same way remember
My meekness ; with those who hated peace, I was peaceful
and meek, to such a degree, that I obtained from My
Father the forgiveness of My executioners.
" In this way thou shalt triumph over vices by virtues."
In this way also we may dwell in the Heart of Jesus,
live His Life, be animated with His Spirit and consumed
with His love. But if the soul has entered into the
divine Heart, it is in order to enjoy the treasures it
contains. It opens: our Lord draws the soul and says to
it: " The higher part of My Heart, that nearest to the
Divinity, shall pour down on thee the sweetness of the
Holy Spirit. It shall distil ceaselessly on thee the dew
of its grace. In the eagerness of thy desires raise thine
eyes to Him; open thy mouth and breathe in the sweet
ness of divine grace according as it is said in the Psalms:
' I opened my mouth, and panted: because I longed for
Thy commandments ' (Ps. cxviii. 131).
" In the lower part of My Heart, that which is
nearest to My Humanity, thou wilt find a treasure con
taining all good things in great abundance to satisfy all
thy desires."
Our Lord then developed this thought, giving to His
Sacred Heart, as to the world, four cardinal points. He
added: " In the east of My Heart thou wilt find the light
of true wisdom; it will make thee know and accomplish
entirely My will. In the western part, thou shalt behold
a delightful paradise; there thou shalt always be with Me,
seated at my table."
What a magnificent similitude and what sublime
possibilities this makes us see ! The Sacred Heart of
Jesus is associated in the divine act which sends the Holy
THE SACRED HEARTS UNION WITH SOULS 75
Spirit, in to our souls, spreading in it the sweetness of His
grace. The Sacred Heart, source of that blood which
redeemed the world, and centre of the sorrows of the
Passion, contains all the treasures that any soul might
crave. It is the sun which gives light; it is the place of
rest for souls in heaven. And so our Lord speaks to our
soul and says : " Let it seek in My Heart all that it desires
and needs, and let it ask it of Me as a child who asks its
father for all it wants. Does it need purity ? Let it
have recourse to My innocence. Humility ? Let it take
it from Me. Let it find there also the spirit of holy
desires and take with confidence My love and the holy
and divine manner in which I acted during My life on
earth."
A Last Prayer : " O My God ! I beg of Thee to be
merciful to My soul at its last hour, giving it the assurance
that it will rest on Thee." And our Lord replied at
once: " What wise man would throw away and destroy
a loved treasure gained with great labour ? In My
Humanity I sanctified the whole man. In Baptism I
vivified by My Spirit all that is spiritual in him. Let
him therefore keep himself always united to Me on two
points : let him trust to Me all that is in man as tempta
tions and trials, offering and uniting them to My Human
ity; then let him direct to Me all his spiritual affections,
such as his hope, love and joy, and in this way I will never
abandon him."
O Sacred Heart, we will trust in thee during our whole
life and especially at the hour of our death. Fiat.
CHAPTER XXVII
CONSECRATED SOULS: THEIR VOCATION
IN heaven those who are virgins are specially loved
by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From this Heart
flow endless joys which first rest in the loving
heart of its Virgin Mother and from her flow into the
hearts of all virgins.
Feeling and seeing all the love and tenderness of the
Sacred Heart for virgins, Mechtilde was filled with
admiration and gratitude for the marvellous goodness of
God, and our Lord said to her: "I have honoured
virgins above all the other Saints, granting them three
privileges.
" The first is My love which surpasses that of all other
creatures. Therefore as soon as the first virgin had
taken her vow of chastity I was so filled with love that
not being able to restrain Myself, I came down from
heaven to enter entirely into her,
" The second is the wealth which I shower on them.
All that I possess, all that I have suffered, I give them for
their own.
" The third is the glory which surpasses all other glory.
At their approach I rise, I speak to them in sweet mysteri
ous words, and they only can enjoy when they will My
holy embrace."
Then Mechtilde said: " Most loving Lord, what must
those fortunate virgins, chosen by Thee, be to enjoy such
privileges?" Jesus answered: "Noble, beautiful, and
rich. The virgin worthy of the name, chosen for My
spouse, must be noble in humility, she must believe her
self of no account, thinking of herself as beneath every
other creature and deserving merely contempt and ab-
76
CONSECRATED SOULS: THEIR VOCATION 77
jection. The more humble she is the more noble she
shall be in the glory of heaven. As for Me, I will add
My humility to hers, and this will be for her the highest
nobility. I wish her also to be beautiful — that is, patient ;
the more patient she is the more beautiful she shall be,
for to her sufferings I will add those of My Passion. To
complete her beauty I will clothe her with reflections
of the divine beauty, which I received from My Father
before the creation of the world.
" She must also be rich in virtue. She must heap up
riches of all the virtues, and she will then receive from Me
the incomparable treasure of My virtues, and so she will
have an abundance to overflowing of eternal joys."
Humility as title-deed to nobility; Patience for orna
ment; Virtues for riches. These are the three con
ditions exacted by the Sacred Heart from a soul that is
to be His spouse.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE TIME OF TRIAL
THE soul that would consecrate itself to the Lord
Jesus in the religious state must during the novitiate
submit to a severe training. It must break its
will, subdue its character, overcome its nature, accustom
itself to the requirements of the Rule and of the common
life. Jesus is with such souls, and His Sacred Heart longs
to unite them more and more with Him by the bonds
of love. Per amoris unionem.
" I will walk in their midst," He said to St. Mechtilde,
who was praying for the young recruits in the Monastery
of Helfta, " and I will dwell in them and they shall be
My people (2 Cor. vi. 1 6). I will walk in their midst by
their holy desires and good will, and I will dwell in them
by love; they shall be My people by this life, holy and
worthy of praise, and by the good and increase they bring
to the Church. All whom they shall attract by their
good example, their virtues or their instructions, whom
they shall win by their prayers, when they pray for the
spread of the Faith, for the conversion of sinners, for the
deliverance of souls from their pains, all these shall be
considered as My people.
" They should apply themselves carefully to the follow
ing practices: frequent and fervent prayer, reading the
Holy Scriptures and listening to them with pleasure,
working assiduously, obeying the Rule, observing with
love all the regulations appointed for them, perfect
humility in everything, never thinking themselves equal
to others and despising no one. While they pray in these
dispositions I will teach them My will and all that shall
be necessary for them; in reading I will teach them My
78
THE TIME OF TRIAL 79
sweetness. I will sanctify them in their labours, in obey
ing and in the observance of the Rule I will have pity
on them, I will strengthen them and help them, and in
their humility; I will rest in them."
But let the young betrothed of Christ be attentive to
see this God, so full of tenderness, everywhere, as He is
always with them in the labours of the Novitiate. And
what will He do for them on the day of their Virginal
Espousals with Him ? He will, on that day, transform
them and make them less unworthy of Him. " In order
to prepare for this great day, they must," He says, "beg
Me to give them intelligent eyes to see Me and to know
what is for their good; obedient ears, ready for every
command and will of their Superiors, a wise mouth in
order to celebrate My praise, to teach and say what is
profitable for others. Let them plead with Me to give
them a loving heart which will love Me and love all
purely in Me and for Me, and to have also a share in
good works; then what they do shall be done carefully
and attentively."
When the Litany was said for the newly Professed,
St. Mechtilde saw our Blessed Lady, and then each Saint,
as he was named, rise and kneel reverently before our
Lord, praying for them. And while they made their
holy Profession our Lord Jesus Christ received them
lovingly into His arms, giving them His right hand to
strengthen them in keeping their vows, and to protect
them from all evil. When they approached to receive
Holy Communion, each found herself closely united to
Him in a sweet embrace.
CHAPTER XXIX
TEPIDITT
SOMETIMES souls who are bound by religious
profession to the service of God forget the gravity
of their engagements. Without entirely breaking
the bonds which unite them to the divine Heart they
allow them little by little to get slack and so fall into
numerous acts of negligence. In the Life of St. Margaret
Mary, we see the divine Spouse irritated by the tepidity
of His unfaithful spouses, asking for public reparation.
Something of the same kind is narrated for us in the
Book of Special Grace.
One Friday Mechtilde saw our Lord standing on the
altar, His hands outstretched, blood pouring abundantly
from His wounds as during His Passion. He said to her:
" See, all My wounds are reopened in order to appease
the anger of the Father against you."
The glorious Virgin Mary stood at her Son's right
hand. On her head was placed a beautiful crown in
which, like precious pearls, shone her virtues, merits
and all the great things that God had deigned to work
in her. Mechtilde, drawing near, begged her to pray
for herself and the Order. The Queen of Heaven, at
once, bending her knees before her Son, honoured
devoutly His wounds with great respect. She commanded
Mechtilde to do the same. " Come, also," she said to
her, " honour the wounds in the beloved Heart of My
Son which caused Him to bear all the sufferings of His
body."
When Mechtilde had gladly done this, she begged our
Lord to reveal to her what He most wished her to do
for the increase of religion. He replied : " He who really
80
TEPIDITT 8 1
wishes to become religious must keep his eyes from all
forbidden or even useless looks. He must abstain from
hearing anything that might sully his heart; he must
prevent his mouth from ever uttering a useless word, and
if he has seen or heard anything evil he must never
permit his mouth to speak of it. Above all, he must
guard his heart and watch that it never takes pleasure
in bad thoughts and that it never dwells on them willingly.
Man cannot prevent such thoughts from presenting
themselves, but he can easily drive them away, so as not
to consent to them, nor dwell on them willingly. He
must also carefully watch his actions, and whenever he
finds he has done wrong on some point, his heart must
have no rest until he has asked God's pardon and purposed
going to Confession as soon as possible."
To understand well the signification of this lesson of
Jesus to His humble servant we must remember that He
appeared to her in the state of a Victim. He therefore
does not speak of religious virtues which console His
Heart, but of faults and negligences which sadden it.
The perfection He exacts from His spouses does not, of
course, admit of any wilful sin, but furthermore, as we
shall see later, it expects the practice of all religious virtues.
This lesson of the Sacred Heart addressed to Religious
is given here as a reproach. In another place He repeats
it as a counsel to a soul whom He wishes to draw to His
love.
" How I should love to be Thy slave !" St. Mechtilde
said to Him one day. Our Lord replied : " He who would
be a slave on earth must deny to his eyes all that is for
bidden and useless and restrain them in all things ; and I
in the glory of heaven will open the eyes of that person,
revealing to him the brightness of My face, and I will
manifest My glory to him. I will show Myself to him
in such a delightful way that all the heavenly court shall
be in joy and admiration." " And also to him who keeps
6
82 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART:
his ears captive and prevents them hearing anything that
is useless or hurtful I will sing sweetly a melody of special
glory in eternity." " He who puts a check on his lips,
to prevent idle or hurtful words, shall receive from Me
the great gift to open them to My praise and to celebrate
My glory more worthily than others." " He who keeps
his heart from all vain or evil thoughts, from all improper
desires, shall be liberally rewarded by Me; he shall obtain
from Me all he desires and his heart shall taste great
liberty and happiness without end in My divine Heart.
He who binds his hands that they may commit no sin
will be delivered from all toil. I will give him a glorious
and eternal rest, I will bestow on his good actions united
to Mine so much honour that all the celestial Court will
receive an increase of joy."
CHAPTER XXX
THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE
FOR a soul consecrated to God it is not sufficient
to hate evil, be it ever so heartily; it must also
have a great love for all the virtues of its holy state.
Hoc sentite in vobis quod et in Christo Jesu. Its thoughts,
affections, desires and all its works must be in harmony
with those of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Blessed John Eudes tells us: " The Hearts of Jesus and
Mary are only One Heart, for they are animated with the
same desires and burn with the same love." In the same
way, one ought to be able to say that the Heart of Jesus
and the heart of a Religious make only one heart.
St. Mechtilde was praying for her sisters, asking God to
increase His grace in them, making them abound in virtue
and good works of every kind. She received this answer
from our Lord: " As long as I find in them humble sub
mission, love of virginal purity, loving gratitude and
tender love, I will never turn away from them the pro
tecting eyes of a Father, and I will never forsake them in
their needs."
A humble submission — that is, obedience to their
Superiors — and a gentle, simple deference among them
selves.
Love of virginal purity, which does not merely consist
in preserving virginity, but also in the love they must
have for chastity, in the care with which they must guard
their hearts and senses in order to avoid all that could
stain them. A present lovingly received is so treated,
it is considered very valuable, and great care is taken that
it should be neither lost nor spoilt.
A loving gratitude, which causes them to accept from
84 SHE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEAR!
God with thanksgiving not only spiritual gifts, but also
what is necessary for the body, as clothing and food, they
will receive all with a loving, contented heart, always
thinking that more is given than they have deserved. A
tender love with which they will love God sincerely and
each other for God, striving to outdo each other in
kind deeds.
But of all the virtues suitable to Religious, the Heart
of Jesus prefers Obedience. The gift of Perseverance
is its fruit. " From the day that a Religious gives up
to Me her own will and leaves it in the hands of her
Superiors, I have received her into My arms; I shall not
allow her to go far from Me, unless she herself turns back
and avoids Me. If she does this, she cannot return to
her former place without humbling herself."
By these words Mechtilde understood that Jesus on
the day of Profession takes each Religious into His fatherly
arms, and does not in future leave him unless (which God
forbid) he wilfully refuses to obey. This is, in a sense,
to escape out of our Lord's hands. These hands will not
receive him again unless, by true repentance and fitting
satisfaction, he prostrates himself humbly before God,
promising solemnly to obey in future.
Our Lord confirmed this doctrine by a vision. Mech
tilde saw the soul of a deceased Religious, and, as she
asked why it was not in heaven, our Lord replied: " He
thought himself wiser than his Superior, of whose actions
he disapproved, thinking he knew better. This caused him
to be separated from Me after his death, for a Religious
is never so wise but that he should submit himself humbly
to his Superior, and bow to his authority in all that is
good."
If Religious only understood their happiness ! On their
Profession day Jesus receives them into His arms, clasping
them to His Sacred Heart; He will never let them go as
long as their will submits to their Superiors. Happy the
THE PRACTICE OF VIRTUE 85
Community composed of such subjects ! Mechtilde
once saw hers gathered round our Lord. From His
Sacred Heart rays penetrated each soul, and our Lord
extended His hand to fill each with His glory, saying:
" Behold, I shower on you the gifts of My glorified
humanity; preserve them by purity of heart, by loving
union one with the other, and by true patience, and on
the day of Judgment you will offer them joyfully to Me,
in yourselves."
CHAPTER XXXI
THE RENEWAL OF OUR FIRST FERVOUR
EGLECT not the grace that is in thee." This
recommendation of the Apostle to his disciple
may be made to all Christians. They are
invited to renew on the anniversary of their Baptism the
grace they then received; but it may be made specially
to souls consecrated to God. These ought to renew the
grace of their vocation to the Religious Life at particular
epochs.
Our sleeping evil nature wakes up as the serpent after
the winter cold. We are disgusted with the fatigues and
monotony of practising virtue. We may even get so
absorbed in the exercise of charitable works, as to forget
the principal end to be aimed at and the programme of
perfection from which we must never deviate. In this
way, a Religious, after having begun well, soon shows sad
signs of tepidity, if he has no zeal for the exercise of
spiritual renovation, which in our time bears the name of
the Monthly Retreat.
Our vocation has its source in the Sacred Heart, and it
is also in that Sacred Heart that it must be renewed. The
Religious of Helfta were faithful in making this renovation.
St. Gertrude, as we shall see later on, had composed a
series of exercises in order to help them. There was an
exercise to renew the grace of Baptism, for that of the
Clothing and Profession, for that of renewal in the love
of God and zeal for His praise, and an exercise of Pre
paration for Death. In all these compositions the Sacred
Heart is constantly studied.
When St. Mechtilde was one day reviewing her past
years in bitterness of soul, thinking how carelessly she had
86
THE RENEWAL OF OUR FIRST FERVOUR 87
lived, how many gratuitous graces she had received from
God, how her consecration to God as His spouse had
been stained by her sins, our Lord said to her: " If thou
hadst the choice, which wouldst thou prefer, to have
acquired by thy own labour and virtues the gifts I have
given thee, or to have received them gratuitously from
Me?" She replied: "My Lord, I value the smallest
gift Thou dost give me more than all the merits of the
Saints, even if I could obtain them by the greatest labours
and the practice of all the virtues." Our Lord answered:
" Mayest thou be eternally blessed for saying that."
He added: " If thou wilt renew thy promises, draw
near to My feet and give thanks for the garment of
innocence with which I have gratuitously clothed thee,
for thou hadst in no way merited it; beg that My immacu
late purity may supply for all that is vitiated in thee.
Give thanks for all the good works wrought by My hands,
which are a source of merit for thee, and also for the
works, operated in thee, by Me. Then plunge the
divine ring of thy faith and love in the furnace of My
Heart, as gold tried in the fire, wash the stone in the
water and blood of My Heart, so that it may regain its
value and brilliancy."
In these words Jesus conveys a lesson, but He also lets
us get a glimpse of a delightful secret of His Heart. The
lesson consists in teaching us again to steep our soul and
all its powers in His sacred wounds, especially in the
wound of His Sacred Heart, but the secret He lets us see
ought to inspire us with a boundless confidence. This
Sacred Heart will be ready to supply for all our infidelities
to the' graces we have received. If the capital He had
confided to us has not yielded all the hoped-for interest,
He will still give the reward promised to the faithful
servant.
O Lord Jesus ! we have so often spoilt Thy plans and
frustrated Thy graces, how happy would we be if, like
88 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
Thy humble servant, we could say: " I value the smallest
gift Thou dost give me more than all the merits of the
Saints, if I could obtain them by the greatest labours
and the practice of all the virtues."
At the same time the soul must examine herself and
scrutinize the most intimate dispositions of her heart.
Our Lord would Himself one day make this examination
when Mechtilde heard these words read in the Gospel:
" Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these ?"
He said to her: " I am going also to question thee: thou
wilt reply with all sincerity. Is there anything in the
world so dear to thee that thou wouldst not give it up,
if possible, for My love f" She replied: " Thou knowest,
Lord, that if all the world and all it contains belonged
to me, I would give it all up for Thy love." Our Lord
recorded this reply as though in reality she possessed all
this and had given it up.
He then questioned her a second time: " Is there any
labour, any burden that obedience could lay on thee
that would seem to thee too heavy to be borne for My
love?" She answered: "Lord, I am ready to suffer
everything for Thy Name."
Our Lord said a third time : " Is there any crushing
pain that thou wouldst refuse to bear for My love ?"
She answered: "My Lord, with Thee, and with Thy
help, I am ready to endure every kind of pain."
The Lord judged the test sufficient and accepted the
assurances as if they had been verified in fact. As to the
dispositions of her heart, in her intercourse with God
and men, our Lord condescended to tell Mechtilde what
they should be, if they were to be pleasing to Him. A
consecrated soul will do its utmost to obtain or to renew
them in itself.
" The soul of a Religious," He said, " should conduct
itself towards Me as a child who tenderly loves its Father
and turns to him for all its wants. It must be like a
THE RENEWAL OF OUR FIRST FERVOUR 89
betrothed virgin, who has not been sought for her wealth
or beauty or nobility, but who is cherished by pure love
and chosen for the honour of occupying a throne. This
virgin would naturally be more grateful, more faithful
and more loving. If her spouse causes her pain, or she
has something to bear through him, she will show more
patience. In the same way My spouse must gratefully
remember the choice I made of her before the foundation
of the world, her ransom for which I paid the price of My
Precious Blood, and her special vocation to My love and
intimacy.
" She must also be to Me what one friend is to another,
who can look upon what belongs to his friend as his own.
She must seek the glory of God in all things and augment
it as much as possible. She must never view with in
difference anything that is done against God.
" When she communicates, she should be like a queen
who goes to her king. A queen at the king's table is
liberal; she distributes gifts and alms. My spouse should
in the same way distribute liberally to all the gifts of her
King and the help of her prayers.
" In the choir and during prayer she should be with
Me as a young bride with her spouse, treating Me with
love and sweet familiarity.
" Among men she should act towards Me as a little
dog acts towards its master. No matter how often he
is sent away, he continues to follow his master. In the
same way, if My spouse hears among others some sinful
words, she must return by contrition, confiding in My
mercy, for I can forgive all for a single sigh."
CHAPTER XXXII
THE SACRED HEART SHOULD BE THE ONLT
TREASURE OF A RELIGIOUS
FAITHFUL soul, who lovest God, consider care
fully and lovingly the commandment which Jesus
has laid upon thee.
He has chosen thee as His spouse, and thou hast in Him
a Spouse eternally young and full of beauty. Thy union,
solicited by Him, has been consummated, thanks to His
grace, on the day of thy solemn espousals, so full of joy
to His Heart.
He arrayed Himself, for love of thee, in .a purple robe
which love had dyed with the blood of His Heart. He
placed on His head a crown of lilies and roses, and the
costly pearls of this crown were the drops of His Precious
Blood. In place of gloves His Hands were stained with
His blood; the nails had so pierced them that He could
hold nothing, but allowed thee to have all that He had
so long hidden, for the salvation of the world. His noble
mystical couch was the hard Cross, which He ardently
desired; no spouse ever found, on ivory couch covered
with silks, such great happiness or joy. On this couch
of His love, He still awaits thee, longing to enjoy thy
embrace. And now, if thou wilt be His spouse, thou
must renounce all pleasure, draw near to this couch of
suffering and ignominy, and rest closely united with His
wounded Heart.
Consider in silence what a precious pledge He has
given thee in opening to thee this loving Heart; what
sweet drink of love He has poured out to cure all the ills
of thy soul. This noble pledge is indeed inestimable, for
9°
'THE TREASURE OF A RELIGIOUS 91
all grace, all virtue and all goodness are contained therein,
and the Spouse who makes it the pledge of His fidelity
will never deprive thee of it. He acts as a king who has
not yet brought his young bride to his palace; he places,
as a pledge of his honour, a rich city in the hands of her
friends. So the Spouse who loves thee has placed in the
hands of the eternal Father this precious gift of His
divine Heart. It is the token that He will never abandon
thee His spouse; and each day He offers it again for thee
on the altar in testimony of the love He has had for thee
from all eternity.
Do thou, then, daughter of the eternal Father, chosen
spouse of His only Son, friend of the Holy Spirit, who
seeks in this Son His rest, love thy Beloved who has so
loved thee and is all love. Be faithful to Him who is
fidelity itself. When some pain comes to thee, accept
it as a golden chain thrown to thee by God, to draw thee
to the love of His Son. Allow thyself to follow this
sweet attraction; raise thyself; rouse thy heart so that the
attraction may be more powerful; make it easier by grati
tude and patience, and never forget that God means to
accomplish thy salvation by these means.
Think also of all the virtues you have yet to acquire.
If you need humility or any other virtue, open with the
key of love this precious treasury of all virtues, the Sacred
Heart of Jesus Christ. Beg of Him, King of all virtues,
to give you those with which He was Himself adorned,
and you will triumph over all the assaults of vice. If the
devil, sower of evil thoughts, surprises you, have recourse
to the same treasury and take from it the choicest weapons.
These weapons are the Passion and Death of our Lord;
make the thought of them dwell in the inmost recesses
of your heart; it will disperse and put to flight all evil
thoughts. When sadness or despair assails you, have
recourse to the treasure of His inexhaustible tenderness.
It is the wish of the divine Heart that none should perish,
92 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
but that all should know and love the truth, excepting
those who wilfully choose damnation. Remember that
God is more eager to seek man than man is to find God.
He desires above all things that man should always be
disposed to receive His grace and to grow more and more
in all virtues.
The Sacred Heart is entirely made known to us in these
lines of St. Mechtilde. She shows it to us as the treasury
of the divinity, containing all grace, all virtues, and every
kind of good. We can open this Heart with the key of
love, and we shall find therein every virtue we need,
weapons against our foe, the certainty and pledge of its
Love. Of itself, this Heart longs to bestow its gifts, and
it is only anxious to prepare men to receive them. It has
given itself as a pledge for us to the eternal Father, and
it is always ready to pay our debts, to supply for our
failings, and to turn away the punishment we deserve.
If in the thirteenth century this Heart seemed a treasury
reserved for holy souls, let us remember that since the
seventeenth it has become the possession of all, especially
of the most miserable. May all our efforts tend to make
our souls capable of possessing it. Et Cor Tuum, ut
magis trabatur, habilita.
CHAPTER XXXIII
A RELIGIOUS BELOVED BY THE SACRED HEART
IS A TREASURE IN A COMMUNITY
ONE Sunday illness prevented Mechtilde from
communicating. She was much grieved and said
to our Lord: " My Lord, what wilt Thou now
that I do ?" He said: " Come " three times. She did
not understand. " Come," He explained, " from heart
to heart by love, from mouth to mouth by a kiss, from
spirit to spirit by union."
She understood what was meant by " from heart to
heart by love," and also the second expression " from
mouth to mouth by a kiss " — that is, showing by exterior
actions her love for the Man-God, but she asked herself
what it meant to go to Him from spirit to spirit. Our
Lord said to her: " He who renounces his own will in all
that happens, whether it be pleasant or otherwise, and
prefers My will to his own, comes to Me { from spirit
to spirit by union,' and that which is written shall be
fulfilled in Him : * He who loves God becomes one with
Him/ "
She then began to pray that a misfortune then threaten
ing the monastery might be averted by God's mercy,
Our Lord said to her: " Thou art My joy and I am thine;
as long as thou livest and art the joy of My Heart, no such
misfortune shall happen to the monastery." She replied :
" Oh, my Beloved ! why dost Thou speak thus, since there
is nothing of good in me?" He replied: "If vinegar
and honey are mixed together the latter loses its sweet
ness, but Mine will never be so mixed as to disappear."
The following was added by St. Gertrude after
93
94 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
St. Mechtilde's death. " See, My Beloved, how powerful
is the prayer of the just man, and what grace God bestows
on man because of His friends; truly are Thy friends
honoured, O my God; they can never be sufficiently
loved and revered, who so often appease Thy wrath
kindled against us and draw down on us Thy blessing.
* Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears
to my eyes ' (Jer. ix. i) worthily to weep for one who
interceded for us through love, and whom we have lost ?
Because of her the Lord Almighty has often spared us;
many times have we experienced the efficacy of her
prayers ! Inflamed by divine love as a glowing coal, she
urged us to love God. Alas, where shall we find her
equal, now that she has entered into the joy of her Lord ?
She has entered into the nuptial chamber of the Lord
of all, to rest in the shadow of her Beloved."
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE SACRED HEART AND THE PREACHERS
OF THE GOSPEL
OUR Lord, through St. Margaret Mary, promised
that priests devout to the Sacred Heart should
have the gift of converting souls. Such a promise
is not found in the Book of Special Grace., but the part
taken by the Sacred Heart in the preaching of the Gospel
is to be found therein.
Mechtilde prayed for a Friar Preacher. Our Lord said
to her: " I have chosen him for Myself, and he shall be
Mine for all eternity. I will be his Guide and co-operate
in all his labours. I will be his Protector, Consoler, and
Procurator of the house in which he dwells. When he
preaches may My Heart be in his mouth a sounding
trumpet; when he teaches may My Heart be his book."
Preaching and teaching coming from the Sacred Heart
must enlighten and transform souls. " I have left Myself
to his will," said our Lord of another Friar Preacher.
" I will never strike a sinner against his will, and to all
those for whom he prays I will give the grace he begs.
As a light feather carried away by the wind gets caught
in the liquid balm, so his soul will be bound fast to My
divine Heart."
How happy must be a priest who has such power, even
over our Lord; a power to convert sinners and enrich the
just with treasures of grace ! And yet this extraordinary
privilege is offered to every priest who is earnest in the
worship and love of the Sacred Heart. " I will give
priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts."
May, therefore, the Sacred Heart be our Book ! May the
Sacred Heart be our speaking trumpet !
95
CHAPTER XXXV
THE SACRED HEART AND THOSE WHO SUFFER
SINCE original sin appeared in the world sorrow
has become man's daily bread, but he has never
been able to get used to such a hard fate. God
has therefore treated him as mothers treat their little
children. The Incarnate Word came to taste the bitter
ness of our sorrows, and He then offers them to us,
sweetened by His grace and enriched by His merits.
Then, also, the Sacred Heart is come to add by the charm
of its tenderness to all the other motives for accepting
suffering in a Christian spirit. Its condescension for
those who weep is a mystery of love.
Adam's sin is the source of all our sorrows, and from
the root of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
a river of tears sprang up which constantly inundates the
earth. But as all possible sufferings met in Jesus at the
time of the Passion, dolores nostros ipse portavit, so it is
from His Sacred Heart that now they are distributed to
His faithful disciples. Let us refer them to this divine
Heart with the homage of our submission and gratitude.
" O Love ! I offer them to Thee for the same inten
tions as Thou didst bring them to me from the Sacred
Heart of God, and when they have been perfected, I pray
Thee to return them there."
Such is the lesson our Lord deigned to give to His well-
beloved spouse. She saw herself one day in a most
beautiful mansion, and recognized that she was in the
Heart of Christ. She prostrated herself on a large cross
that lay on the ground. And from the cross sprang a
sharp golden arrow which pierced her heart. She then
96
?HE SWEETNESS OF SUFFERING 97
heard our Lord say: " All the goods of earth could not
fill one soul with joy, but it is in suffering and sorrow that
it will find salvation and glory." And our Lord added:
" A silken garment is soft and pleasant, so every suffering
is sweet to a soul that really loves God."
Mechtilde replied: " That is true in the beginning of
pain when a soul is inflamed with love, but if the pain
increases it becomes hard to bear." Our Lord answered:
" No doubt; but if a silken garment is adorned with gold
and precious stones it is not thrown away nor despised
because of its weight; rather, on account of its adornment,
is it considered more valuable and distinguished. And
so a faithful soul will not refuse suffering because it is
too painful; for by it the soul's virtues will become more
perfect and its merits infinitely increased."
Who would not submit to pain offered in this way
by the Sacred Heart ? Mechtilde accepted the trial of
sickness, signified by the cross and sharp golden arrow.
And why did our Lord once clasp Mechtilde with His
left arm, so that she rested on the wound of His Sacred
Heart ? He tells us Himself: " When thou art ill I hold
thee with My left arm, and when thou art well with My
right arm; but remember that when thou art held by
My left arm thou art much nearer My Heart."
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE SACRED HEART: WISHES <IO CONSOLE
THOSE WHO SUFFER
t | AHE first act of a soul that is in pain ought to be
to throw itself into the Sacred Heart and offer
-** to that Heart all its sorrow, Jesus will shower
on the soul wonderful graces; He will receive its tears,
uniting them with His own, thus giving them an infinite
value. He will also confide such a soul to the love by
which He was guided during the days of His mortal
life, and this love will be more its servant than its master.
He confided Mechtilde to this love one day, so that it
might care for her and serve her during her illness.
Love serves the souls confided to its care in three ways:
First it undertakes with great fidelity the matters confided
to it. It also guards carefully in the casket of the divine
Heart all committed to its care, and remits it faithfully
increased and ennobled to the soul when it leaves this
world. It also helps man in labours and troubles, assists in
good and defends him in evil.
But our Lord, though He had given Mechtilde into the
care of love, would console her Himself. One night
when she could not sleep, on account of a violent pain in
her head, she begged our Lord to tell her where she could
find a little rest. Our Lord showed her the wounds in
His hands and feet, and told her to choose in which she
would rest. As she refused to make this choice herself,
Jesus showed her the wound in His side and said to her:
" You must enter here to rest." And at once she
entered with joy into the divine Heart, and found sweet
repose.
$8
JOT IN SUFFERING 99
Though Mechtilde suffered violent pain she was filled
with joy. " My soul," she says, " is full of divine sweet
ness and floats in the divinity as a fish in water or a bird
in the air. Union between God and the Saints, and that
between God and my soul have only this difference : they
rejoice in the fulness of their joy, and I in suffering."
The favours showered upon her during her severe illnesses
astonished even the Saints in heaven.
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE SACRED HEART AT ST. MECHTILDFS
DEATH
SUFFERING ends in death. Will the Sacred
Heart which was with us in our tears remain with
us in our agony, until our last sigh ?
Yes; Jesus has promised all His devoted servants that
He will be their support at that dread moment. He has
deigned to give us a special pledge of this promise in the
visible protection accorded to His Apostles in their last
hour. All received the grace of a glorious death, not only
before God, but also before men. They all prepared
with the same care, with the same confidence in their
Judge, and with the same peace in the last moments
before their sacrifice. It was the same with St. Mechtilde,
This humble and devoted servant of Jesus Christ had
spent over fifty-seven years of her life in the Religious
state; at the end she suffered continual pain for about
three years, which ended in death. About a month
before this happened, she went, as was her custom,
through the exercise of preparation for death, composed
by St. Gertrude.
On the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost of the
year 1298 she received Holy Communion for the last
time. She then recommended her last hour to the
mercy of God. Jesus, standing before her, said very
tenderly: " Honour and joy of My divinity, delight and
rest of My Spirit, wilt thou come now and remain for
ever with Me, fulfilling My desire and thine ?" She
replied: " My Lord God, I desire Thy glory more than
my happiness. I beg of Thee, therefore, to allow me to
THE SACRED HEART AT DEATH 101
expiate by suffering all that, as Thy creature, I have
neglected in the praise I owed Thee."
Our Lord received this reply very graciously, and said:
" As thou hast chosen this, it is another mark of likeness
to Me, for I accepted and voluntarily suffered the anguish
of the Cross and of death for the glory of God and the
salvation of the world. And, as My sufferings penetrated
and moved the Heart of My Father, so thy sufferings
and death shall penetrate into My Heart and contribute
to the salvation of the whole world."
Mechtilde's Sisters suffered at witnessing her terrible
pain, and also at the thought of the approaching separa
tion: " Weep not and do not be sad on my account, my
well-beloved," she said to them. " I share in your sorrow,
and if it were the will of our sweetest Spouse who loves
us, I would live always in these pains and so always be
able to console you."
What admirable dispositions ! Like St. Martin, the
humble Benedictine is ready to live, to suffer, to die; but
she willed above all the holy will of God, and that adorable
will had decreed the end of her exile. Our Blessed Lord
warned her of it, saying with much tenderness: " Come,
My elect, My dove, My flowering field, where I have
found all I wished for, My garden full of beauty where I
have tasted all the joys of My divine Heart; there flourish
all virtues, 'there grow the trees of good works, there flow
the waters of devotion and fervour; it was always open
for Me to find what I wanted. I loved to retire to this
garden when sinners irritated Me; in drinking of its
waters I was so inebriated as to forget the insults offered
Me."
On the evening of this Sunday Gertrude was praying
for her friend, and received from our Lord the mission
to warn her to prepare for Extreme Unction. She told
her from Him that after the reception of this salutary
Sacrament, our Lord, who watches with so much care
102 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
over His friends, would hide her in His pure and spotless
Heart — in the same way, she added, as a painter takes
great care of a picture newly painted, for fear it should
be spoiled by the dust.
Mechtilde submitted, but without begging much for
the precious Sacrament. On the Monday morning
before dawn she was attacked suddenly with such violent
pain that the priest was brought in great haste to give
her Extreme Unction. During the ceremony Gertrude
in ecstasy saw our Lord turn on Mechtilde a loving look,
full of all the goodness and tenderness His divine Heart
had had for her, when the priest anointed her eyes. It
was as though a ray of divine light communicated to her
all the merits of His most holy eyes. And the eyes of
Mechtilde, under the influence of this divine goodness,
seemed to distil an oil of infinite sweetness.
This mysterious fact made Gertrude understand that
on account of Mechtilde's merits our Lord gave great
consolation to 'those who invoked her with confidence;
she had deserved this privilege, because during her life
she had from motives of charity always shown herself
kind and considerate to everyone. In the same way,
when the Unction was applied to the other parts of her
body, our Lord gave to each the perfect merits of the
corresponding sense of His own body.
The dying servant of God spoke also very lovingly to
the Holy Virgin our Mother, recommending to her the
companions whom she was about to leave, begging of her
for love of her to show them greater affection. The
Immaculate Virgin deigned to show she granted this
request by laying her delicate hands on those of
Mechtilde.
During her lengthened agony, Mechtilde said no other
words than: " Good Jesus ! Good Jesus !" showing that
she had in her heart Him whose name, amidst the bitter
agony of death, came continually to her lips with so much
'THE SACRED HEART AT DEATH 103
sweetness. And all there recommended themselves to
her prayers, confiding to her their concerns and those of
others they loved. Mechtilde could only reply, very
faintly: " Willingly " or " Yes." In this way she proved
with what affection she would intercede with our Lord
to grant all their petitions.
The longed-for hour came at last. Stripped of all that
was earthly, perfectly resigned to the Will of her Beloved,
this loving spouse was to leave the prison of the flesh to
enter the nuptial chamber of her royal Bridegroom.
It was the hour for the community to rise, and the
Mother Superior was the first, with a few others, at
Mechtilde's side, when quite suddenly her face changed
and assumed a look of exquisite tenderness, coming from
an interior feeling of great love. One would have thought
that by her signs and happy looks, as she was now unable
to do so in words, she was inviting her dearly-loved Sisters
to congratulate her on the ineffable gifts our Lord had
bestowed on her. Then the God of majesty, the God of
pure delights, the only One who can satisfy the loving
soul, enclosed His spouse in the light of the divinity, and
penetrated her entirely with it. He, the Chanter of
chanters, with the sweetest voice intoned a song which
surpassed all earthly melodies. In this moment He repaid
this soul, which like a nightingale had so often on the
earth charmed His divine Heart, less by the sweetness of
her voice than by the fervour of her devotion. He
therefore sang to her these words: " Come, thou blessed
of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for thee.
Arise, My love, and come without delay." He reminded
her of 'the great grace granted her nine years previously,
when He had given her His Heart as a pledge of His love
and protection.
As soon as she had rendered her last sigh in the Heart
of her Beloved, Gertrude saw her in glory, resting, full
of joy, on the breast of Jesus. The Angels and Saints
104 ?HE LOFE OF THE SACRED HEART
came to salute her, less as an equal than as a queen.
St. Gertrude begged her to pray that the defects of those
on earth for whom she had always shown so much affec
tion might be cured. Mechtilde replied: "I see very
clearly in the light of truth, that all the affection I have
ever felt for anyone on earth is smaller than a drop of
water is to the ocean, compared with the tender affection
which fills the divine Heart towards those I loved. I also
see, in a manner incomprehensible to you, how good
are the designs of Providence: in that God leaves man
certain defects which give him cause for humbling himself
and for making efforts, so making each day progress in
the way of salvation. And so I could not have the thought
of any will other than that of the almighty wisdom and
tender goodness of my sweet and loving Lord, in which
He has desired for each one according to His good
pleasure. All I can do, in considering the admirable
ways of the divine goodness, is to spend myself in praise
and thanksgiving."
This reply was for St. Gertrude a consolation and en
couragement. A consolation: she was immeasurably
loved by the Sacred Heart. An encouragement : she must
bear her defects and combat lovingly to the end.
The day following at the first Mass, which was a
Requiem Mass, the elect of God appeared to her; she
seemed drawing from the Heart of our Lord with golden
tubes. In this way those who had a special devotion
to her drew from the divine Heart all they desired. They
seemed to be saying these or similar words : " By the love
which made Thee grant so many favours to Thy beloved
Mechtilde, or to any other Saint, and by Thy will to
grant grace to whomsoever it may be on earth or in
heaven; hear me, sweet Lord Jesus Christ, by her merits
and those of Thy elect."
During the Mass which followed that of the burial,
Mechtilde appeared as one settled in the divine Heart,
THE SACRED HEART AND DEATH 105
using this Heart as a lyre of which she touched four
strings, making a delicious melody in several parts, melody
of praise, thanksgiving, loving complaint and prayer.
The last vision with which St. Gertrude was favoured
about her holy friend resumed all her teaching: zeal for
the divine praise and love for the Sacred Heart. Mech-
tilde always appeared to be resting in the Heart of Christ,
and she left it to come and meet Gertrude, showing
herself to be in the brightness of glory, clothed with a
dazzling garment that seemed covered with diamonds,
some shining like stars and others clear as a mirror.
Gertrude asked what more she desired from her Order.
" Above all," she said, " I desire the praise of my Lord.
You could do nothing that would give me greater happi
ness than to praise Him unceasingly. He has placed me
among His Saints who please Him most by praising Him
best."
Gertrude replied : " How are we to praise God in you ?"
Mechtilde replied: "Perform all your actions with the
same purity of intention and perfect love that I always
had for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Do
this when you enter the choir to pray or to sing. Do the
same when you go to sleep or take your meals, and the
same for everything else. Do all your actions for me, to
the praise of my Beloved, and in that you will find your
salvation."
Gertrude continued: "What do you gain for the
praises we offer to God for you?" She replied: "A
special embrace which renews all my joy and happiness."
And Gertrude saw three rays of light which came from
the divine Heart and illuminated Mechtilde and all the
Saints. These turning to our Lord sang: "We praise
Thee for the everlasting beauty of Thy spouse, for the
delight Thou takest in her, and for the perfect union
which makes her one with Thee."
Gertrude, seeing that our Lord took pleasure in these
io6 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
praises, said to Him: "Why, O Lord, dost Thou take
so great a pleasure in being praised in this soul?" He
answered: "Because while living she desired above all
things to see Me praised. She has kept this desire, and
I come to satisfy her with My ceaseless praise (et hanc
incessabili laude mea cupio satiare)."
On the feast of St. Catherine, Mechtilde came to the
choir with our Lord, as if to direct the singing according
to custom. And as St. Gertrude was astonished and
said to her: " Is there anything you would like to ask of
your sisters?" she replied: "Rejoice ardently together
in your Beloved; His love surrounds you with as much
tenderness and affection as that of a mother with her
only child. She would always wish it to be resting on
her breast. He also protects you against all that might
prove harmful. God, who loves you so much, wishes you
always to remain attached to Him, and never to forsake
Him. If you leave Him, He will send sorrows so that
you may return to Him; so does a faithful mother act.
She chastises her child if it leave her and fall, to teach it
not to leave her. In the same way a mother finds great
joy in the tender, loving words of her child, so does your
Spouse desire of you. Therefore give Him your hearts,
since He is Father, Lord and Spouse and Friend and all
in all to you."
The last words Gertrude understood by a divine inspira
tion; since He is our Father, we ought to go to Him for
all we need; since He is our Lord, we must place in Him
all our hope; since He is our Spouse, we must love Him
with all our heart and soul; and since He is our Friend,
we must tell Him with great confidence all our pains and
necessities and look for consolation from Him only.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE SACRED HEART AND PURGATORT
THE Sacred Heart does not abandon the souls that
have during their lives been devout to it, even
amidst the flames of purgatory. He Himself begs
for suffrages and prayers for them. In the resurrection
of Lazarus He rewarded the faith and confidence of the
two sisters. With what delicate skill did our Lord lead
Martha and Mary to believe in His power and goodness.
And when they said: " I have believed that Thou art
Christ, the Son of the living God, who art come into this
world," He went at once and called Lazarus from corrup
tion: "Lazarus, come forth."
Mechtilde fulfilled this role during her lifetime. The
soul of a Brother had been recommended to her prayers.
She did not trouble to remember him. She received a
direct inspiration from heaven, and yet did not obey.
Our Lord spoke severely to her: " So thou wilt not allow
Me to satisfy for My friend by thee." Then taking her
by the hand, He said: " Come, and I will introduce thee
into the admirable tabernacle of My house." She was
ravished into heaven, and there the soul of this brother
appeared to her, standing before our Lord, adorned by
five rays which came from the divine Heart.
The first ray entered his eyes. It signified the know
ledge which had adorned nis life, and which led him
ceaselessly to contemplate God in the glory of the divinity.
The second ray entered his ears. It signified the joy with
which he received the words and tender greetings which
were ceaselessly spoken to him by God. The third ray
entered his mouth, to signify the ineffable praise of God
107
ro8 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
which never ceased coming from his mouth. The fourth
ray filled his heart. It signified the marvellous sweetness,
joy and delight with which heavenly favours filled him.
The fifth ray inundated and illuminated his body with
ineffable brightness, showing that in all his members and
with all his strength he had been devoted to good works
and to the practice of virtue.
Then Mechtilde, filled with admiration, said to our
Lord: "My sweetest Lord, why hast Thou taken this
soul so soon out of the world, where his words and example
might have done good to so many ?" Our Lord replied:
" His ardent desire constrained Me. As a child separated
from his mother's breast, he was drawn to Me; so he
deserved to come so soon and rest in Me. He had
worked so hard and would receive so great glory that his
admission had to be a little delayed. During this time
I made him rest on My Heart." She asked: " O loving
Lord, how long did he rest thus ?" " Just one morning,"
answered our Lord, " during which love accomplished
in him what it had designed for him from all eternity."
How consoling ! Purgatory might be passed in the
Heart of Jesus if only we were as much attached to Him
as a child to its mother's breast. From the Sacred Heart
come the rays that purify souls and prepare them for the
glory of heaven. From the Sacred Heart come the
inspirations to help the faithful departed. But all souls
do not spend their purgatory on the breast of Jesus.
Mechtilde was allowed one day to witness the torments
by which some unhappy souls were purified, each suffering
according to the faults it had committed. But the
greatest suffering was the privation of the sight of God.
"Do you suffer pain?" she inquired of a young man
recently deceased. " No," he replied, " except that I
do not yet see my loving Lord. So great is my desire
to do so that the united desires of all men would seem
nothing in comparison."
'THE SACRED HEAR? AND PURGATORY 109
The want of God is therefore the greatest torment of
these souls. So Mechtilde made every effort to enable
them to enter into the presenqe of this God so ardently
longed for. It had been said to her: " The prayer of a
pure soul, offered to God with love, flows into the divine
Heart as very limpid water, and is very efficacious."
Our Lord said to her one day after Holy Communion :
" Say the Our Father for the dead in union with the
intention My heart had in teaching it to men." By these
words she was enlightened to know that the Pater ought
to be recited with the following intentions : At the first
words, Pater noster qui es in caeHs, we ought to ask pardon
for souls who have committed faults against a Father
so adorable and loving, who by pure goodness has raised
men to the great honour of being the sons of God —
(1) in not loving Him with sufficient respect; (2) in not
giving Him the honour due to Him; (3) in driving Him
from their hearts where He wishes to reign as in heaven.
Christians then pray in union with their innocent Brother,
Jesus Christ, who offered for these souls His penances,
full of love and satisfaction. Through Him the Father
receives in reparation for these sins the love of His Heart
offered in His human nature with so great honour and
reverence.
Sanctificetur nomen tuum, " Hallowed be Thy Name,"
to repair and supply — (i) what was wanting in their
reverence for the Name of God and so great a Father;
(2) the fault of having taken this Name in vain, or of
having thought so seldom of it; (3) the fault of having
shown themselves by their evil lives unworthy of this
holy 'Name, though they are called Christians. The
heavenly Father is then begged to accept the perfect
sanctity of His Son, who magnified His holy Name in
His preaching and glorified Him in all the works of His
holy humanity.
Adveniat regnum tuum — "Thy kingdom come." Here
no THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
forgiveness is asked for souls — (i) who have never desired
enough the kingdom of God or God Himself, in whom
alone is true rest and eternal joy; (2) for those who have
never sought it diligently. The heavenly Father is
petitioned to receive the very holy desires of His loving
Son to have them for heirs to His kingdom in reparation
for the coldness these souls have shown for all that is good.
Fiat voluntas tua sicut in ccelo et in terra, " Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven." We should say these
words to repair their faults — (i) of not having preferred
God's will to their own ; (2) for not having loved it in all
things. We must beg our heavenly Father to accept,
in reparation for their disobedience, the union of the very
holy Heart of His Son with His very perfect obedience,
for He became obedient unto death. Mechtilde under
stood from these words, " Thy will be done," that religious
persons often sinned — (i) in very rarely offering to God
their whole will; (2) in often drawing it back, and that it
was very necessary, at these words, to make mention of
them, as many were kept separated from God after death
through this negligence.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie — " Give us
this day our daily bread." The faults to be repaired are —
(i) not having received with sufficient desire, devotion,
and love the Blessed Sacrament, so great and so necessary
for them; (2) that many have rendered themselves un
worthy to receive it; (3) that some have rarely or never
received it. We should beg our heavenly Father to regard
the ardent love, ineifable desires, perfect sanctity and
devotedness with which Jesus Christ gave us this magnifi
cent and perfect gift.
Et dimitte nobis debita nostra — " And forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us."
At these words we should ask forgiveness — (i) for all sins
committed, mortal sins and those caused by them; (2) for
the many who have been unwilling to forgive offences
THE SACRED HE AM AND PURGATORT in
.committed against themselves; (3) for those who have
not loved their enemies. We ought to beg Almighty God
in reparation for these faults to accept the prayer, full
of chanty, with which His Son prayed for His enemies.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem — " And lead us not into
temptation." The real evil for these souls is that they
did not resist their vices and concupiscences, but were so
often led by the devil and their own evil inclinations,
throwing themselves wilfully into all kinds of evil. We
pray our heavenly Father to accept in atonement and
reparation for these faults the glorious victory won by
Christ over the devil and the world during His most
holy life, in His labours and different sufferings. We
finish by supplicating Him to deliver them from all
evils, and conduct them to the kingdom of glory, which
is Himself. Amen.
When Mechtilde had finished this prayer she saw an
immense number of souls, full of joy, giving thanks for
their deliverance. This was no doubt owing to the merits
and fervour of the holy spouse of the Sacred Heart;
but even of itself this prayer is most efficacious, for by it
we offer the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart. It is
our duty to pray often to God, through the divine Heart,
on behalf of the souls kept by the justice of God in the
expiatory flames.
On All Souls' Day our Lord appeared to Mechtilde in all
the brightness of His beauty, bearing three precious jewels
on His breast. The first signified the eternal desire with
which God is always filled for souls. The second, the
insatiable love of His divine Heart for man, for even
though man remain cold and insensible, the love of the
divine Heart is unchangeable, and burns for him. The
third jewel signified the joys of the divine Heart of which
the Scripture speaks : " My delights are to be with the
children of men."
He then allowed her to see the souls of the dead on this
ii2 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEAR?
day consecrated to their remembrance. Approaching,
He deigned to serve them Himself. Every word said
in choir, in the lessons, all that the whole Church does for
these souls seemed different kinds of food and drink which
He gave them Himself. The souls were filled with great
joy, but in their hearts there was a cruel executioner, the
sting of conscience. Hie erat propria conscientia.
And this worm tore and tormented them ceaselessly.
This worm never dies in purgatory, and the soul is only
liberated from it when it enters into the joy of its Lord
and is united to God eternally. Then the soul hears
this loving invitation: " From the depths of My Heart
drink joy, and that because of those who pray for thee "
(Elbe de medulla Cordis mei gaudium ex part? omnium pro
te orantium). May we induce Jesus to say these sweet
words to our dear dead, and may we hear them ourselves
very soon after our last sigh.
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE SACRED HEART AND HEAVEN
WHEN the soul of the just leaves the body, if it
is so entirely exempt from all sin that it may at
once enter heaven, God penetrates this happy
soul with His divine Spirit, fills and possesses all its senses
to such a point that He is the eye by which the soul sees,
the light through which it sees, and the beauty which it
perceives. So, in a manner as inexpressible as delightful,
God, in the soul, and with the soul, contemplates Himself,
the soul and all the Saints.
He is also the hearing of the soul, to listen to the sweet
words which He speaks with more than motherly love,
to hear also the harmony of God with all the Saints.
Through Him the soul also breathes the life-giving and
divine breath coming from God, the sweetness of which
surpasses all perfumes and vivifies the soul for eternity.
He is also the taste of the soul and causes it to relish
His sweet savour. God is also the tongue and voice of
the soul, with which He celebrates, in the soul and for
the soul, His praises in the most complete and elevated
manner possible. He is the heart of the soul, charming
and rejoicing it, Himself revelling in it and with it and
filling it with ravishing delight. Furthermore, God is
the life of the soul and the motive-power of all its parts,
so that all its acts seem done by God, and in the Saints
St. Paul's words are fulfilled: " That God may be all in
all " (2 Cor. xv. 28).
Has the intimate union of God with His elect ever been
better expressed ? We have already seen how Mechtilde,
at the moment of her death, was admitted to a mysterious
113 8
u4 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
union with the Sacred Heart. If this privilege is not
granted to all the Saints, it is at least granted to those
who have loved the Sacred Heart. When Mechtilde's
Sister, the Abbess Gertrude, died she took her flight into
the marvellous and divine Sanctuary of the Heart of
Jesus opened to her with such joy and fidelity. What
she saw, what she heard, what she felt, what she received
of blessedness, from the overflowing tenderness of Jesus,
in being transported by a special privilege to such a
resting-place, who among men could imagine ?
With what exquisite tenderness does her Eternal
Spouse draw her to Himself ! The daughters of the
happy Abbess on earth joined in her bliss by singing Qu&
pausas sub umbra Dilecti — " Thou who dost rest under
the shadow of thy Beloved. " And they could hear her
reply: " It is not enough for me to rest in His shadow,
it is in the very Heart of my Beloved that I rest lovingly,
sweetly, and securely." " Then," said they, " speak for
us all to God, since you are so full of bliss." " I beg for
my daughters, that they too may enjoy the rest full of
sweetness which I so securely enjoy in the dear Heart of
our loving Jesus."
Behold, therefore, a soul in heaven who declares that
it is not enough for her to rest in our Divine Lord's
shadow ! She must be hidden in His Heart. May
infinite thanks be rendered for ever to our dear Saviour
for having satisfied this ardent desire. He has willed to
prepare for His elect a dwelling in the depths of His
paternal Heart. There, throughout all eternity, they
will see how they have been loved and gratuitously
chosen for so great a happiness. Here below no one can
open the heart of his friend and see there the feelings he
entertains for him; but the elect enter into the most
intimate secrets of the Sacred Heart; they see and taste,
with ineffable joy, the fulness and charm of infinite love.
CHAPTER XL
OUR DUTT TOWARDS THE SACRED HEART:
DEMOTION TO THE SACRED HEART
IN her conversations with her two friends Mechtilde
spoke from the fulness of her heart, but she had
never dreamed of writing a book. Therefore a
methodical manner of writing need not be expected in
her teaching, such as one would desire in a treatise on the
Sacred Heart,
What one can appreciate in the Book of Special Grace
is the depth and elevation of the doctrine taught, the
manifestation of the feelings which filled the Sacred Heart
during the different epochs of its life, the account of its
dealings with the Father and with each one of us in the
exercise of its mediatorial office. In no other place are
these admirable secrets recounted with so much exact
ness and magnificence. Even St. Gertrude never de
scribed the Sacred Heart of Jesus during His mortal
life as St. Mechtilde has done. Saint Margaret Mary
depicted it on one occasion only — i.e., in the Agony in
the garden at Gethsemani.
The knowledge of the Sacred Heart is a great grace,
but it would be useless and even become a motive of con
demnation, if it did not produce the desired fruit, that
of the love and entire gift of our heart. To know without
wishing tolove is to approach hell; to know, and to strive
to love, is to approach heaven.
Mechtilde was very near the abode of the Blessed, for
she loved the Sacred Heart with a love her companions
called excessive (nimia). No doubt our Blessed Lord
constantly fed the flame of divine love in her heart, for
Ii6 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART:
each time He appeared He opened His Heart and gave her
some special grace. And, after all, had she not within
her the furnace of divine love ? The Sacred Heart had
given itself to her, and she carried it always in her own
heart.
The holy Benedictine may therefore be our model in a
true devotion to the Sacred Heart. But does the Book
of Special Grace, which reveals to us the prerogatives of
the divine Heart, betray also the secrets of Mechtilde's
intercourse with it ? Are the acts of devotion practised
in the thirteenth century in any way the same as those
taught by St. Margaret Mary ? Are the marks of devo
tion of the Virgin of Helfta the same as those of the
Virgin of Paray-le-Monial ?
We must acknowledge that St. Mechtilde's book is a
real treasure, and Providence has amply justified the
second title given to it by our Lord, who called it The
Light of the Church. In reality it exacts from the soul
devoted to the Sacred Heart all the acts of the modern
devotion: adoration, return of love, outpouring of heart,
gratitude, boundless confidence, even reparation for the
outrages of which it is the victim.
The devotion taught by St. Mechtilde to her two
companions has also another characteristic, that of
absorbing all religion and the whole life. She did not
find it enough to kiss the Sacred Heart five times a day,
as she had been taught; she would also offer to it all her
actions, seek in it all her supernatural intentions and
through it praise the divine majesty of God. She sought
it in the Sacraments, in the holy tribunal of penance, at
the Holy Mass, and above all in Holy Communion. She
was entirely absorbed in the Sacred Heart. She no longer
lived, the Sacred Heart lived in her. May we, like her,
be absorbed and transformed by this Heart so loving.
CHAPTER XLI
THE ADORATION OF THE SACRED HEART
TO praise, adore and glorify the Sacred Heart is
an imperative need to a soul who knows its infinite
perfections. Her inability to acquit herself of
her duty worthily becomes an unspeakable torment.
" If I could," says St. Mechtilde to our Lord, " I would
bend all knees before Thee, my sweet and faithful Friend
in heaven, on earth and in hell."
Our Lord replied with His usual goodness : " Ask Me
to accomplish this wish Myself, for in Me are all creatures ;
and when I come before My Father to fulfil the office
of praise and thanksgiving, I am bound to supply perfectly
for Myself and in Myself all that is wanting in creatures.
My goodness could not suffer that the desire of any faith
ful soul, which it could not itself accomplish, should
remain unsatisfied."
What a consolation for a soul burning with zeal for the
Sacred Heart ! The Heart of Jesus accomplishes itself
the soul's desires and supplies for its powerlessness. And
that is not all. One day when Mechtilde went to
honour her Well-beloved with great love He said to her:
" When thou dost salute Me, I salute thee in My turn;
when thou dost praise Me, I praise Myself in thee; and
,when thou givest thanks, I also, in thee and by thee,
return thanks to God the Father." She then said:
" My Well-beloved, with what salutation dost Thou
address my soul? I do not perceive it." He replied:
" My salutation is no other than My great love for the
soul. A mother caresses her child on her knee, teaching
him to repeat the words he must use in saluting and
speaking to her. Even if the child does not do this of
himself, but only because his mother has taught him,
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ii8 7HE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
she receives with a mother's heart what he says, and
sometimes rewards him with her embrace. I also teach
the soul by My inspirations and love to salute Me. When
it does what it can in its small way, I accept that according
to the greatness of My paternal affection, returning to
the soul its salutation and giving it My grace, without,
however, this being perceived by the soul."
So when we would glorify the Sacred Heart it glorifies
itself in us; and it does not value the praise from our
lips for what it is worth, but for the immense love Jesus
bears us and for what He adds thereunto Himself.
St. Mechtilde was enabled to understand this delightful
mystery. She saw one day a wonderful harmonious
instrument coming out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
She then leaned on the breast of her Well-beloved, using
all her strength to praise Him in Himself and through
Himself. The more she praised Him thus united to Him,
the more her strength failed her, and that to annihilation.
As wax melted before the fire, she felt melted and merged
in God in a blissful union, close and inseparable. In
that moment how she longed that all in heaven and on
earth should together participate in the grace of God !
If we ask the Sacred Heart with what we are to praise
it, Jesus answers, with all He has poured of praise into
the Heart of His Father, with all He has poured of love
into the Heart of His Mother, and with all He exhibited
of heroism on the Cross.
One Holy Saturday when she would embalm with her
adoration the body of her Beloved, He said to her: " Take
the ineffable sweetness which eternally has flowed from
My divine Heart into the Father and the Holy Spirit,
take the sweetness which filled more than any other heart
the virginal heart of My Mother; take the devotedness
which, before My Passion, urged Me with the greatest
desire and most ardent love. With these perfumes thou
mayest embalm Me worthily."
CHAPTER XLII
THE OFFERING OF OUR HEARTS
I. — How our Lord wants us to give Him our Hearts*
EBE, fili mi, cor tuum mihi — " My child, give
e thy heart." This is all the Sacred Heart of
Jesus asks from men in return for His love, His
sufferings and His grace.
Our Lord gives us His divine Heart in order to receive
from us the gift of our hearts. If we give them with joy
and confidence, God will guard them so powerfully that
we shall not fall into grievous sin. We should therefore
strive to increase our knowledge of the Heart of Jesus,
and seek to please Him more. In sadnesss we should
take refuge with confidence near this treasure which is
bestowed on us, and seek therein our consolation.
The offering of our heart to Jesus is therefore a pledge
of perseverance, but it is also in itself one of the greatest
joys to His Sacred Heart. As the eagle always seeks in
its prey the choicest morsel, the heart, so our Lord always
seeks the heart, asking us to give Him this choice morsel.
Mechtilde, understanding this desire, could only ex
claim : " O most loving Lord, with what burning desire
would I wish to offer Thee my heart!"
And Jesus at once taking Mechtilde's heart into His
hands inhaled the odour as of a sweet-scented rose. And
she said : " What scent can you find in that which contains
no good ?" and our Lord replied: " Being Myself in thy
soul, it is My sweetness which is breathed forth from thee.
I am the Creator of the whole world, and have no need
of any reward, but thou art thyself My reward, for My
119
120 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
heavenly Father has given thee to Me as My spouse and
daughter."
Mechtilde then said : " Why, O loving Lord, dost Thou
deal so with me who have nothing of good in me ?"
He replied: " Solely because, through my goodness,
I have placed in thee the delight of My Heart."
//. — How we should offer our Hearts to Jesus.
It was Pentecost Sunday and they sang at the offertory
Tibi afferent reges munera — " Kings shall offer Thee their
gifts," and Mechtilde said to our Lord: "What shall
I offer to Thee, now, O well-beloved of my heart, for I
have nothing worthy of Thee ? Worldly people give
Thee of their goods : Religious offer themselves, devoting
themselves entirely." Our Lord answered: "Offer thy
heart in five different ways, and it will be to Me a very
agreeable offering. In the first place, offer it as the
pledge of espousals, with all the fidelity of which it is
capable, and beg of Me by the love of My Heart to purify
it from all the stains of its unfaithfulness. Offer it also
as a jewel, and make this offering as joyfully as if thou
didst enjoy all happiness and didst renounce it for Me.
Offer it also as a crown, adding to it all the honour thou
mayst acquire in this world and even in the next, so as
to have Me only for thy glory and crown. Offer it as a
golden cup, out of which I may drink My own sweetness,
and lastly offer it as a dish, on which exquisite food is
served for Me to feed upon Myself.
" This offering ought to be frequently renewed. The
Sacred Heart expects it at least daily .? On rising in the
morning give Me thy heart, so that I may pour My love
into it."
And the Sacred Heart appeared to her open and as
large as the palms of her two hands, like a burning flame.
'THE OFFERING OF OUR HEARTS 121
Then our Lord said to her: " It is so I would wish to see
the hearts of all men, burning with the fire of love."
And the Sacred Heart does not leave us alone amidst
the turmoil of the world and business. It follows us.
" Thou canst never find thyself surrounded by so great
a crowd that thou art not alone with Me, if only thou
turn thyself to Me with all thy heart."
Let us now listen to the Virgin of Helfta explaining
this lesson of the perpetual life of love, or union with the
Sacred Heart of our Lord: "When a man is alone let
him continually raise his heart to God, speaking tenderly
to Him, and, with frequent sighs, desiring ardently to
possess Him. By this continual conversation with God
his heart will be inflamed with divine love. If he is with
others, let him turn his thoughts to God as much as he
can ; let him speak willingly of God to them, and so he
will enkindle in them the fire of divine love. In the
same way let him do all his actions for God and for His
glory, and what he should not or cannot do, let him
abstain from, also for the love of God. As to troubles
or contradictions, let him accept them generously for the
love of God and bear them patiently.
But if the loving soul gives itself to the Sacred Heart,
will not the Sacred Heart give itself to him ? Mechtilde
wished to know the answer to this question. " Lord,"
she said, " when I pray or chant the psalms, what dost
Thou do ?" " I listen, but when thou dost sing I unite
My voice to thine; when thou dost labour I take My
repose, and the more thou dost labour with zeal and
solicitude, the more sweetly I rest in thee. When thou
dost eat I labour, and then I nourish Myself of thee and
thou of Me; and when thou sleepest I watch and guard."
CHAPTER XLIII
THE OUTPOURINGS OF THE HEART
OD," says the prophet, "is a jealous God."
Even so is the Heart of the Son of God made
man. He wants our hearts entirely for Himself
alone. On this condition alone will He give us His
choice graces. The lover of souls, our Lord Jesus Christ,
desires with a great desire to draw the soul to Himself,
particularly if it longs to be consoled by Him and to
participate in His graces to such a degree as to be willing
to reject all consolation from creatures and all joy that
does not draw or urge it on in the love of God. Whatever
a man loves, or whatever he may have received, he owes
all to God, who wishes thereby to draw man to love Him
alone. If, therefore, the soul feels it is making no progress
in the love of God, that the thought of some loved object
returns more frequently to the mind than the thought
of God, let it turn its thoughts away from that object,
if it does not wish to be deprived of God's loving friend
ship. This friendship is excessively delicate and cannot
bear anything to be considered above it, nor even on a
level with it. Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of paternal
charity, desires to be the Well-beloved of our hearts.
This love without alloy and without division is the
greatest of the joys of the Sacred Heart, exceeding the
joy it receives from our praise and thanksgiving.
The Virgin, who personified love to Mechtilde, took
her to our Lord. She, leaning on the wound of the
Sacred Heart of our Saviour, which was her all, drew
from it long draughts of mildness and kindness, which
changed all her bitterness into sweetness and her fear
into security. She took also from the sweet Heart of
122
THE OUTPOURINGS OF THE HEART 123
Christ the continual praise which proceeds from the
Sacred Heart: for all God's praise comes from this Heart,
which is the pure source from which all good flows.
She took also a second fruit, which was that of thanks
giving, for, in reality, the soul can do nothing of itself
if God does not prevent it with His grace.
Our Lord then said to her: " I expect from thee, more
than from all others, that thou shouldst give me a fruit."
She replied: " And what is this fruit, dear Lord ?" " It
is that thou shouldst refer all that delights thy heart
to Me only." " O my only Well-beloved, how shall I
do this ?" " My love will accomplish it in thee." Then
in a transport of gratitude she cried out: " Oh yes, yes,
love, love, love !"
Our Lord added : " My love shall be thy mother, and
as children draw milk from their mother's breast, so thou
shalt drink from the breast of this mother interior con
solation and unutterable sweetness, and this mother shall
nourish thee, quench thy thirst, clothe thee and provide
for all thy necessities, as a mother would do for her only
daughter."
While praying, with a heart full of fervour, desiring
the Well-beloved of her soul, she suddenly felt herself
powerfully drawn by divine grace; she seemed to see her
self sitting at our Saviour's side. And our Lord clasping
her soul to His Sacred Heart filled it with His grace. It
seemed to her that it flowed into all her members. Love
said to her soul: " Enter into the joy of thy Lord." And
at these words she entered into an ecstasy. As a drop
of water in wine cannot be distinguished from the wine,
so this* blessed soul, lost in God, became one spirit with
Him. In this union her soul annihilated itself, but God
consoled it, saying: " I will shower all my gifts down on
thee; rest here, leaning on the Heart of Him who loves
thee."
Happy a thousand times the souls who find their rest
1 24 THE LOFE OF THE SACRED HEART
on the Sacred Heart of Jesus ! And shall we poor
sinners be for ever deprived of this happiness f Let us
ask our Blessed Lady how we may make ourselves worthy
and so testify our love for her beloved Son.
Mechtilde asked the Mother of God one day to obtain
for her the grace to be cleansed from all her sins in the
living waters of the divine Heart. Immediately the
Blessed Virgin took her into her arms and led her to the
divine Heart; her soul embraced the Heart of Jesus five
times.
At the first embrace, she felt herself purified from all
her stains. At the second, she felt that the true peace
of our Lord was given her. At the third, she received
the gift of a special sweetness as to a most dear friend.
At the fourth, she was transported into the divine Heart,
where shesawand recognized all the elect and all creatures.
And our Lord said: " What wilt thou or canst thou desire
more ? Now all that constitutes the joy of heaven is
thine." At the fifth, it seemed to her that she was sitting
with our Lord at a table sumptuously served and that
she was eating with Him.
So we see a soul that is drawn to the Heart of Jesus
by love to give proofs of its affection finds itself over
whelmed by numberless favours. It came bringing the
offering of its love, and it carries away with it the treasures
of the Sacred Heart. Continue, O Jesus, to treat us as a
mother treats her child. For if Thou dost seek in our
hearts for the generosity of the Saints, steeped in Thy
love, Thou wilt never be able to open Thy Heart to all
the children of Adam.
CHAPTER XLIV
REPARATION FOR SIN
THE Sacred Heart was particularly honoured in
the Monastery of Helfta by a return of love, the
imitation of its virtues, by perfect praise and by
thanksgiving. Reparation was not, however, unknown,
and the inmates strove to repair the insults offered to it.
At the time of the Carnival Mechtilde macerated her flesh
till the blood flowed, offering this slight reparation to
her Well-beloved for all the excesses and wickedness of
the world. And our Lord, several times, said He loved
to rest on Mechtilde's heart, where He could forget the
pain caused Him by other hearts. It was the Sacred
Heart just as Margaret Mary was to know it.
One day our Lord appeared to Mechtilde as though
suspended, with hands and feet tied, and said to her:
" Every time a man sins mortally he ties Me thus, and as
long as he perseveres in his sin he keeps Me in this torture."
He had already complained of being so ill-treated in His
Church. Three things particularly grieved Him: the
clergy did not study the Holy Scriptures in the right
way, but made it contribute to their vanity; Religious
neglected interior things and gave all their attention to
things exterior; the people took no care to hear the
word of God nor to receive the Sacraments of Holy
Church.
Mechtilde asked our Lord to teach her how she could
offer satisfaction to Him for the many members of the
Church who at this time (it was Quinquagesima Sunday)
showered so many insults on Him. Our Lord replied:
" Say 350 times the anthem: Tibi laus, tibi gloria, tibi
gratiarum actio, 0 beata Trinitasl — 'To thee be praise,
125
126 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
to thee glory, to thee thanksgiving, O blessed Trinity,'
in reparation for all the indignities offered Me by those
who are My members."
We see, therefore, that already Mechtilde was intent
on oifering reparation for the sins of others. But, above
all others, she thought of her own sins. One day when
she was grieving over the uselessness of her past life, she
offered herself to live if possible in ceaseless sorrow and
to suffer on earth to the uttermost.
Our Lord said to her: " To repair thy omissions and
make up for the past, praise My Heart for its divine
goodness. It is the source and origin of all good, and
every blessing flows from it. Then praise My Heart for
the numberless graces which have flowed, flow now, and
shall for ever flow, on all the Saints and on all the souls
that shall be saved. Afterwards praise My Heart for all
the sweetness which, so many times, has sprung from My
loving Heart and flowed into thine, intoxicating it with
heavenly delight."
Once, on Good Friday, at the time when she was going
to kiss the Cross, by a divine inspiration she said: " Be
hold, Lord, all my desires. I attach them to Thy Cross,
and I submit them all to Thy desires, so that, completely
purified and perfectly sanctified by this union, they may
never incline again to earthly things."
At the wound of the right hand our Lord said to her:
" Hide here thy spiritual treasures, so that all the negli
gences thou hast committed while wearing the religious
habit may be fully repaired by My riches."
At the left hand He said: " Place here all thy sorrows
and pains; united to My sufferings they will be sweet
and exhale an agreeable odour before God; as a garment
impregnated with musk or any other scent, spreading
abroad a sweet perfume, or as a piece of bread dipped in
honey tasting of sweetness."
At the wound in His Heart He said : " This wound is so
REPARATION FOR SIN 127
large that it embraces heaven and earth and all they
contain ; come, place thy love near to My divine love, that
it may be perfected and so blended with it as to become
one only love, as iron is identified with the fire."
The servant of God prayed for a person who liad
complained to her of the sorrow she felt because she did
not love God enough and did not serve Him with enough
devotion. She was herself also filled with sorrow at the
thought, feeling herself in every way useless, having
received such great blessings from God and yet loving
Him so poorly. Our Lord answered her: " Come, My
well-beloved, be not sad; all that is Mine is also thine."
" If, therefore," said Mechtilde, " all that is Thine is
mine, I possess also Thy love, for Thou hast said Thyself
by St. John, ' God is love* (John iv. 16). I offer Thee,
then, this love, that it may supply for all that is wanting
in me."
Our Lord accepted this offering with pleasure, and said
to her: "Thou must always do this; when thou dost
desire to praise or to love Me without being able always
to fulfil thy desire, thou shalt say: * Good Jesus. I praise
Thee; supply, I beg of Thee, all that is wanting to me.'
If thou desirest to love thou shalt say: * Good Jesus, I
love Thee; in order to supply what is wanting to my love,
I beg of Thee to offer to Thy Father for me the love of
Thy Heart.' Also tell the person for whom thou hast
prayed to do the same. If she does it a thousand times
a day, her offering shall each time be presented to the
Father, for it could never tire or weary Me."
What a magnificent occupation for the Sacred Heart
to offer itself to the Father every time that we wish it in
order to supply for our defective praise and love ! Thus
does it heal a delicate wound in a loving heart, zealous
for God's glory.
" I am come with all My divine power," Jesus said to
her one day, " to heal the wounds which cause you pain."
128 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
Mechtilde said, within herself: "Oh, if He would offer
for Me an act of full and complete praise to God the
Father, how happy I should be."
Answering her thought our Lord said: " In what does
the praise of God consist, if not in a lamentation of the
soul that it can never praise Him as it desires ? And the
desires, devotion, prayer and good will that a soul has to
do good, all this is a sorrowful lamentation, and when I
come to supply for it Myself, I heal it of all its wounds."
But this was not enough for Mechtilde. It did not
suffice that our Lord said to her: "Do not trouble, I
will pay all thy debts and I will supply for all thy negli
gences." She could not be consoled for having so
wastefully squandered the gifts God had given her, for
having loved Him so coldly, and for having been so un
faithful to Him who had been so faithful to her and to all.
The Sacred Heart, however, had the last word, and it was
adorable: " Even if thou wert perfectly faithful to Me,
thou shouldst infinitely prefer that My love should repair
thy negligences rather than that thou shouldst do it,
so that My love may have the honour and glory."
CHAPTER XLV
AL the graces we have ever received have flowed
from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is the love
burning there that caused Him to bestow them on
us so abundantly.
From the Sacred Heart flowed the Precious Blood that
merited these graces for us during the Passion. So
gratitude is a duty for the disciple of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, and with St. Mechtilde we should say: " What
thanksgiving, O source of all sweetness, should be paid
Thee for that loving wound received by Thee on the Cross
for man ? Victorious love pierced Thy loving Heart
with a dart, and for our healing water and blood gushed
forth. And Thou also, conquered by the love Thou
hadst for Thy spouse, didst die of love."
The Blessed Virgin, safe guide of grateful souls, will
teach us our duty: " Draw nigh and kiss the wounds
my Son received for love of thee. But kiss thrice His
loving Heart, thanking Him for having given Himself,
now and for ever, to thee and to all the elect."
And our good Mother continues offering us the other
wounds of her well-beloved Son. " In kissing the
wound in His right hand, thank Him for having helped
and co-operated in all thy good works. At the left hand
thank Him that He will always be for thee an assured
refuge. Kiss also the wound in His right foot in thanks
giving for the ardent desire which caused Him to thirst
after thee, all His life. Kiss gratefully also the wound in
His left foot, for there thou shalt always find forgiveness
for thy sins."
It is a pious practice often to press our lips to the wound
129 9
130 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
of His most sweet Heart, from which springs for us re
freshing water and inebriating wine — viz., the Blood of
Christ and, with it, all graces in an infinite number; but
in order to please the Sacred Heart we should also add a
continual remembrance of it. " Let men meditate with
profound gratitude, and keep always in their memory the
acts of virtue I practised while on earth, all the sufferings
and injuries I bore during thirty-three years, the destitu
tion in which I received the affronts I had to bear from
My own creatures, and at last My death on the Cross,
that most bitter death borne for love of man. By it,
I bought his soul with My Precious Blood to make it
My spouse. Let each one have as much love and
gratitude for all these benefits as if I had suffered them
for his salvation alone."
Such thanksgiving is a joy to the Sacred Heart and
profitable to ourselves. This joy and profit cannot be
better expressed than by the following passage : Mechtilde
thanked our Lord for His sacred wounds, begging Him to
wound her soul with as many wounds as He had received
in His holy body. Our Lord then said to her : " As often
as a man grieves in his soul over the memory of My
Passion, so often does he seem to lay a sweet rose on My
wounds. From this wound will go forth a dart of love
to pierce his soul with a saving wound."
"'O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we lay on Thy wound this
rose of gratitude, but in return pierce our hearts with the
dart of Thy love."
CHAPTER XLVI
CONFIDENCE
y^ONFIDENCE in the Sacred Heart is only a
practical faith in its love and infinite goodness.
^-^ If this confidence relates to the past, it can be
defined as a sweet experience of the help of the Sacred
Heart in our needs. It then assumes the character of
gratitude.
If this confidence relates to the future, it is the pro
found certainty of the faithfulness of the Sacred Heart
in helping us and fulfilling all its promises.
If this confidence relates to the present, it is an actual
and lively feeling of the goodness of the Sacred Heart
in all circumstances, even that of our own unworthiness.
" If He kill me, I will yet hope in Him," said holy Job.
Confidence, then, places the soul in a particular attitude
towards the Sacred Heart. Like to that of a child to
wards its father, it relies on him for its nourishment,
for its clothing, for its education, for its future. It
feels itself and its destiny to be entirely at its father's
disposal, but as it believes firmly in the goodness of its
father's heart, it expects all from him and rests in peace.
Such is the state of a soul who really trusts the Sacred
Heart. It expects all from it, bread for soul and body,
forgiveness of its sins, strength to fight the battles of life,
deliverance from all evil, and it also expects choice graces
and iavours of predilection.
Notwithstanding its repeated falls, it hopes still in the
infinite tenderness of the Sacred Heart. And this because
its confidence does not rest on its own merits, but on the
infinite love of God. " His Heart," says Mechtilde,
" is simple as that of a dove. It never changes in its
132 'THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
feelings of goodness for man, even though he is so often
unfaithful." Too often those who profess piety are luke
warm and feel no love; but the love of the divine Heart
is always unchangeable and burning for us. To inspire
us with an absolute confidence in His Sacred Heart, Jesus
gives us through Mechtilde this admirable lesson:
" I will teach thee three things on which thou mayst
meditate each day. Thou shalt gain great profit from
them.
" (i) In returning thanks to Me, remember the graces
prepared for thee in the Creation and Redemption. I
created thee to My own image and likeness. For thee
I was made man, and after countless torments for the
love of thee suffered a most bitter death.
" (2) Remember with gratitude the benefits I have
bestowed on thee, from thy birth to this present moment.
By a choice grace I called thee from the world; many
times I have lowered Myself to thy soul; I have filled and
inebriated it with My grace; I have enlightened it with
knowledge and inflamed it with love; every day I come
to thee ready to fulfil thy desires and will.
" (3) Remember with praise and thanksgiving the great
gifts I am prepared to bestow on thee in heaven; the
greatest riches, far beyond what thou canst believe or
realize, all that thou desirest shall be there.
" It is a great joy to Me that men expect great gifts
from Me. If any of them expected to receive from Me
greater rewards than he had deserved after this life and,
if, in consequence, he thanked Me for them during his
life, he would thus give Me so much pleasure that, no
matter how great his faith or extraordinary his confidence,
I would reward him beyond his merit; it is impossible
that a man should not receive what he has believed and
hoped for. Therefore it is good for a man to hope much
in Me, and to place in Me all his confidence."
Mechtilde therefore said: " O sweetest Jesus, if it is so
CONFIDENCE 133
pleasing to Thee that man should trust in Thee, tell me,
I pray Thee, what I should believe of Thy ineffable good
ness ?"
Our Lord replied: "Thou must believe with a firm
hope that after thy death I will receive thee as a father
receives his well-beloved son, that I will share all that I
have with thee, and will give thee part of Myself.
" Further, I will receive thee as a friend receives his
dearest friend, and I will show thee a greater love than
friend ever received from friend.
" I will also receive thee as a spouse receiving his newly-
made bride whom he loves intensely, with so much
delight and sweetness. No spouse ever multiplied for
his bride so much tenderness as I will lavish on thee,
filling thee with joy and inebriating thee with a torrent
of happiness from My divinity.'*
Mech tilde replied: "What wilt Thou give to those
who, because of these promises, trust in Thee ?" Our
Lord answered: " I will give them a thankful heart,
with which they will receive My gifts gratefully; I will
give them a loving heart, with which they will love Me
faithfully; and lastly I will give them hearts to praise
Me as the heavenly choirs praise Me, loving and blessing
Me always."
Deign to give us such hearts, O Jesus !
CHAPTER XL VI I
ORDINART ACTIONS DONE IN UNION WITH
THE SACRED HEART
TRUE devotion to the Sacred Heart leads us to
sacrifice to it our entire selves. The soul truly
devoted to it has only one thought, the thought
of the Sacred Heart; one desire, to please the Sacred
Heart; one only preoccupation, to labour, to be spent —
in one word, to live for the Sacred Heart. From this
proceeds a delicate solicitude to consecrate to it all one's
actions, even the most ordinary; the simple use of our
senses and material needs, such as eating and sleeping.
And indeed, did not the " Word made Flesh " subject
Himself to all these weaknesses and needs of our nature
during the thirty-three years He lived on the earth ?
A soul full of faith knows how to find Him amidst these
humiliations and seeming trifles as really as in the Crib,
on Thabor, or on Calvary. I say more: He awaits it,
so that He may teach it the dispositions it must have
in order to be conformed to His own.
Let us listen to Him: "On first awakening in the
morning, salute My loving Heart, from which has flowed,
flows, and will flow for ever, every good, every joy and
every happiness in heaven and on earth. Strive to place
thy heart in Mine, and to this end say: * Praise, blessing,
glory and salvation be to Thee, O sweetest and most
loving and faithful Heart of Jesus Christ. I thank Thee
for having guarded and protected me during this night,
and for having praised and thanked God the Father
in my stead.'
" And, O Jesus, who lovest me more than any other, I
134
UNION WITH THE S4CRED HEART 135
offer Thee my heart as a refreshing rose;, may its beauty
draw on it Thy blessing during the whole of this day,
and its perfume rejoice Thy divine Heart. I also offer
Thee my heart as a cup from which Thou canst drink
of Thine own sweetness, with all that Thou wilt do in me
during this day. I also offer Thee my heart as an exquisite
pomegranate, fit to appear on Thy royal table. I wish
that Thou wouldst consume it in such a manner, that
this poor heart of mine may in future joyfully know
itself to be in Thee. I also supplicate Thee to grant
that all my thoughts, words, works and will may be
directed to-day according to Thy will and good pleasure.
Make, then, the sign of the Cross, saying : ' In the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Holy Father, in union with the love of Thy adorable Son
I commend my spirit.' And thou shalt repeat this prayer
at the commencement of all thy actions.
" Refer thy looks, interior as well as exterior, to divine
wisdom, and beg it to give thee light. Refer thy ears
to divine mercy, and beg it to preserve thee from hearing
what might hurt thee. Offer thy mouth and voice to the
ever faithful God, so that they may only say words of
wisdom and be preserved from all sin. Offer thy hands
to the good God, begging Him to unite thy actions to
His works, to sanctify and perfect them in His own and to
prevent thee from doing evil. Also offer thy heart to
divine love, and beg that it may be so united to the
Sacred Heart as to be charmed and inflamed with its love,
and may feel no other love or joy on earth. In the same
way, during the Mass, offer thy heart to God, and before
the 'Secret purify thyself, turning thy thoughts away
from all things of earth, preparing thyself to receive the
stream of divine love, which flows into and fills the hearts
of those who assist."
Our Lord in this way recommends us with great in
sistence always to remain united to Him, and He wishes
136 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
to realize in some way in us St. Paul's expressive words,
" I live, now not I: but Christ liveth in me." Hence
one day He said to His spouse: "I give thee My eyes
that thou mayst see all things through them, My ears so
that by them thou mayst understand all thou nearest;
I also give thee My mouth that by it thou mayst accom
plish all that thou hast to say, to pray or to sing; and
lastly I give thee My Heart, so that thou mayst think by
it, and love Me with Myself."
At these last words our Lord absorbed the whole soul,
and united Himself so intimately with it, that it seemed
to see with the eyes of God, hear with His ears, speak
by His mouth, and have no other heart than that of
God.
So intimate and perfect a union is a privilege of the
few only. Yet our Lord exacts from all the ordinary
union accomplished by a supernatural intention.
" Man ought to unite himself to Me in all his actions —
as, for instance, if he wishes to eat or sleep, he ought to
say in his heart : ' Lord, in union with the love which made
Thee create this food for me, I take it for Thy eternal
praise, and because I need refreshment.' "
For sleep our Lord Himself indicates the intention
with which we ought to take it. He wishes we should
go to sleep in drawing five sighs from His divine Heart.
" Before sleep draw from My Heart a sigh in union
with that praise which it dispensed in favour of all the
Saints and as a supplement of what was owing from all
creatures. Also a sigh in union with that gratitude which
the Saints drew from My Heart, and which they returned
for all the gifts I had bestowed on them. The soul
ought, then, to sigh for its own sins and those of others,
in union with that compassion which made Me bear the
sins of all. It must also sigh for the love and desire it has
to obtain for men all that is necessary for the glory of
God and their own needs; it will thus unite itself to the
UNION WITHgTHE SACRED HE AM 137
divine desires I had on earth for man's salvation. Lastly,
it must sigh in union with all the prayers which were
poured forth from My Heart and from those of My
Saints for the salvation of all, whether living or dead;
it ought to desire that each breath, during the sleep of
this night, might be accepted by Me as an incessant
sigh. As it is impossible for Me to refuse anything to a
loving soul, I will fill them according to the plenitude of
My divine truth."
How holy would one night be, if preceded by such
sighs \ Happy the souls faithful to a perpetual union
with the Sacred Heart.
CHAPTER XLVIII
DI7INE PRAISE
THROUGH the Sacred Heart alone can we adore
God in a manner worthy of His infinite Love.
Nothing is more in accordance with the doctrine
of the Church than St. Mechtilde's teaching on the part
taken by the Sacred Heart in the divine praise. The Son
of God made man alone offers a homage worthy of the
Blessed Trinity; and it is through Him that Angels and
men may praise the divine Majesty.
This doctrine is fully expressed in the Preface of the
Mass : " It is truly meet and just, right and salutary,
that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks
unto Thee, Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting
God: through Christ our Lord. Through whom the
Angels praise, the Dominations adore and the Powers
fear, Thy Majesty; the Heavens also and the Heavenly
Powers, and the Blessed Seraphim glorify it in common
exultation. With whom, we beseech Thee, bid that our
voices also be admitted in suppliant praise, saying: Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts. Full are the
Heavens and the Earth of Thy glory: Hosanna in the
Highest !"
So we see that all praise reaching heaven must pass
through the lips and Heart of Christ.
Leaning one day on the wound of the sweet Heart of
our Saviour, which was all hers, St. Mechtilde drew from
it a most delicious kind of fruit and raised it to her lips.
This signified the eternal praise which proceeds from
this divine Heart; indeed, all divine praise comes from
this Heart, pure source of all good.
Mechtilde sang thanksgivings to God and prayed the
138
DIVINE PRAISE 139
Son of God Himself, the youthful Spouse of all loving
souls, to render to God the Father loving praise for so
great and inestimable a gift.
O admirable condescension ! The Son of God at
once presented Himself respectfully before His heavenly-
Father and praised His greatness in these terms :
Ccetas in excelsis te laudat ccelicus omnis,
Et mortalis homo et cuncta creata simul.
" All the celestial choirs praise Thee in the highest
And mortal man and all creatures join in the concert."
By these words " celestial choirs " Mechtilde under
stood that our Lord drew to Himself in one accord the
praises of all the heavenly citizens; and by the words
" mortal man," that He united to them the intentions
of all men; and by " all creatures " that He united in
Himself the substance of all creatures in order to celebrate
the praise of God the Father. In the same way, He
resounded for them, in the presence of God the Father,
praise in the name of heaven, earth and hell.
The greatest desire of the Sacred Heart is that we
should excite in ourselves the spirit of praise and of
adoration in spirit and truth, which He announced to the
Samaritan woman as the mark of His true disciples.
St. Mechtilde continued: "O sweet and loving Jesus,
what dost Thou prefer that I should do ?" He replied:
" Praise." Mechtilde answered : " But do Thou teach me
to praise Thee worthily."
She then learnt from our Lord that she should strike
three times on the Sacred Heart. The first stroke was
to praise the Blessed Trinity for Its infinite greatness
and she accompanied it with these words " To Thee be
honour and empire, to Thee glory and power, to Thee
praise and jubilation, during eternity, O Blessed Trinity."
At the second stroke she gave to the Sacred Heart she
praised God for all the graces granted to the Blessed Virgin
and to the Saints already in possession of heaven; she then
140 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEAR?
said: "It is just that all Thy creatures should praise,
adore and glorify Thee, O Blessed Trinity. To Thee
praise, glory and thanksgiving !" The third time that
Mechtilde knocked on the Sacred Heart it was to praise
God for all the graces He had showered on the just to
sanctify them, on sinners to convert them, on the souls
in purgatory who, each day, are absolved by His mercy
and brought to the joys of heaven; and this last time she
said: "All conies from God, in Him all live. To Him
be glory for ever and ever ! To Thee praise — Tibi
laus /"
After these praises her soul entered the sweet Heart
of Jesus and there, become one with her Well-beloved,
she saw and tasted what is not possible for man to express.
The virgins who follow the Lamb sing a new song,
not known to profane lips. But it is still from the Sacred
Heart that comes the heavenly harmony. Three strings,
like those of a harp, detached themselves, went through
the Heart of the Immaculate Virgin, then through the
hearts of all holy virgins and met in the Heart of Jesus.
There also Mechtilde heard music like that from an organ ,
and she remembered the words : " There resound con
tinually the musical instruments of the Saints."
CHAPTER XLIX
THE SACRED HEART ITSELF TRAINS MECH-
TILDE IN DIVINE PRAISE
ST. MECHTILDE had a beautiful voice, so she
had charge of the choir in the Monastery of
Helfta. She brought to her work both faith and
zeal. Our Lord Himself deigned to install her in this
important employment.
This happened on the feast of the Annunciation.
After humbling herself profoundly before our Lord she
begged Him to forgive her all her sins, and by the merits
of His holy life to supply for all her imperfections. As
soon as she had received from our Lord the precious gift
of forgiveness of all her sins, she felt bold enough to
rest on the breast of Jesus, her Well-beloved. She then
beheld, coming from the Heart of our Lord, a golden
pipe with which she celebrated the praises of God.
She understood and begged of our Lord to celebrate
His own praise. At once, she heard the sweet voice of
Christ, the divine Cantor, intone this canticle: "Give
praise to our God, all ye His Saints " (Apoc. xix. 5).
Our Lord gave her to understand that He alone, as God,
was able to sing praise worthy of the Sovereign Majesty.
For which reason, He would transform her into Himself,
so that she might be associated with Him in the divine
praise.
He placed His hands on hers, giving her all the labours
and good works of His sacred Humanity. He then
placed His eyes with such a sweet look on St. Mechtilde's
eyes, giving her with the merits of His holy eyes an
abundant flow of tears. He then applied His ears to
those of His servant, so enriching her with the merits
141
142 THE LOFE OF THE SACRED HEART
of His holy ears. Then placing His mouth on hers, He
made her share in the words of praise, the thanksgiving
of His life and His preaching, to supply for all her negli
gences. He then placed His most sweet Heart on
Mechtilde's, giving her a share in His meditations, His
acts of devotion and love, and so enriched her abundantly
with all His treasures. In this way Mechtilde's soul
was entirely absorbed in that of our Lord, melted by
divine love, as wax is melted by fire. Immersed in our
Lord she acquired His likeness, as though it had been
engraved on her, and she became one with her Beloved.
As the time for receiving Holy Communion drew near,
she heard Him whom her heart loved say: " Thou in Me,
and I in thee; never will I forsake thee."
The only thing Mechtilde desired in this world was
the glory of God. Seconding this desire our Lord gave
her His Heart as a golden cup delicately chased, saying
to her: " With My divine Heart thou shalt always praise
Me. Go and give My Saints to drink from My Heart
a liquor of life which will plunge them into a blessed
intoxication. She went to the Patriarchs and to the
Prophets to whom she gave to drink saying: " Receive
Him whom you have so long desired and waited for;
pray that I may desire Him with all my strength and sigh
ceaselessly for Him, night and day."
She then went to the Apostles, saying to them: " Re
ceive Him whom you have loved so ardently and with
your whole heart ; pray that I may also love Him fervently,
above all, and with my whole heart." Then to the
Martyrs she said: " Behold Jesus. For His love you shed
your blood and delivered your body to death; obtain
for me that I may generously spend myself in His service."
She then came to the Confessors. " Receive Him," she
said, " for whom you left all, despising the pleasures of
this world; obtain for me, that I may despise all joys for
His love and attain to the summit of religious perfection."
TRAINING IN PRAISE 143
Coming at last to the Virgins, she gave them to drink,
saying: " Receive Him to whom you have consecrated
your virginity, and grant that in all things I may triumph,
through chastity of mind and body."
Then having gone round the heavenly court she
returned to our Lord, and He, receiving His Heart, this
golden cup, placed it in Mechtilde's breast, who was thus
happily united to our Lord.
After this vision Mechtilde was able to sing the praises
of God. It was no longer she who sang, but Jesus living
in her. O, what a loving installation as Cantor ! You
who, by the beauty of your voices, glorify our Lord, beg
of Jesus a similar installation and sing with the same
fervour and perfection.
CHAPTER L
THE INTENTIONS OF THE HEART OF JESUS
IN DIVINE PR4ISE
OUR Lord would repeat His instructions to the
holy Benedictine on the intentions required for
singing the divine praise.
She complained one day of having been unfaithful.
Jesus, laying His divine Heart on hers, said to her: " Now
My Heart is thine, and thy heart is Mine " — Nunc Cor
meum tuum est et cor tuum meum est. And, in a sweet
embrace, He drew her soul so intimately to Himself
with His divine strength that in future she was only
one spirit with Him.
Our Lord Himself then indicated the intention she
was to have during the Office. " At Matins, as soon as
thou hast risen, consider respectfully how, forced by My
love, I allowed Myself to be bound by wicked hands and
became obedient unto death; prepare thy heart to obey
all that shall be commanded thee, even if this day thou
hadst to perform all the acts of obedience accomplished
by all the Saints.
" At Prime adore the humility with which I appeared
before the most unworthy of judges as a most meek Lamb
to be judged; then submit thyself to every creature for
My sake, and be ready to perform the lowest and most
degrading work.
" At Tierce consider the love which caused Me to be
despised, spit upon and covered with opprobrium; then
despise thyself and hold thyself in low estimation.
" At Sext, that the world may be crucified to thee and
thou to the world, consider how I was fastened to the
144
UNION OF INTENTIONS 145
Cross for thee; therefore all the pleasures and joys of the
world should be for thee nothing but a bitter cross.
" At None die to the world and every creature.
Consequently the bitterness of My death should be
sweetness to thy heart, and every creature as such inspire
thee with contempt and disgust.
" At Vespers, the hour when I was taken down from the
Cross, remember that after death and the end of thy
labours, thou shalt rest in a blessed repose in My Heart.
** At Compline think of that blessed union when,
become one spirit with Me, thou shalt enjoy Me fully.
This union will begin by the submission of thy will to
Mine, in prosperity as in adversity, and will be perfect
on the day on which thou shalt enter into the glory which
shall never end."
Mechtilde often said: "Teach me to praise Thee."
And our Lord always replied: " Consider My Heart. "^
10
CHAPTER LI
THE SACRED HEART AND CONFESSION
THE Sacrament of Penance is the most merciful
invention of divine love. There are hidden
all the treasures of satisfaction amassed by Jesus
on Calvary, and when they please all sinners may
come to take what they need. Whatever their crimes
may be, they will return purified, holy with the holiness
of Jesus Christ Himself, rich with the drops of His blood,
as Magdalen was formerly at the foot of the Cross.
With this Sacrament, as with all the others, man must
co-operate by his acts. Carefulness in examination,
confusion and sincerity in avowal, sorrow and firm
purpose in repentance — all these are required of the
penitent. Our Lord exacts them as an essential condition
for forgiveness. We must, therefore, fulfil our own part
of the Sacrament with diligent care, but also with great
discretion.
Before confession we ought to strip ourselves of what
is faulty in us by contrition, as Christ was stripped before
the scourging and crucifixion. And if Christ was stripped
to be scourged, man ought to divest himself of all sinful
affections, before confessing his sins. What an excellent
reason this is for us to look sincerely into our conscience
and then afterwards to confess our sins honestly to Christ's
representative !
For the examination of conscience, St. Mechtilde
recommended the practice of placing the Sacred Heart
and its virtues before ourselves as a mirror. So in the
mirror of the humility of Jesus man might consider
carefully his own humility and see if he has not stained
146
THE SACRED HEART AND CONFESSION 147
his soul by pride or haughtiness. In the mirror of the
patience of the Sacred Heart man should test his own
patience and see if he discover not some impatience in
himself. In the mirror of the obedience of the Sacred
Heart he should examine his conduct and see if he has
not been disobedient. In the mirror of the love of the
Sacred Heart he should ask himself what love he has had
for His Superiors, and whether he has been peaceful with
his equals and full of kindness to his inferiors.
If in these, or other points, man finds some stain on
his soul he must efface it with the application of the
humanity of Christ; he must remember that Christ is
our brother, and that in His tender goodness He forgives
man his sins, as soon as they are acknowledged.
Mechtilde added a recommendation which ought to
be received gratefully by scrupulous souls. Man should
be careful not to wash his stains with too much eagerness
— that is, without considering the divine goodness; for by
effacing them too eagerly he might easily injure rather
than heal, his soul.
What a number of souls have been injured by their
exaggerations ! Let them rather go to the Sacred Heart,
source of all mercy, trusting in its loving kindness, for it is
Jesus Himself who forgives sin when the priest pronounces
the words of absolution. Mechtilde saw our Lord one
day sitting at the right hand of the divine Majesty
blotting out sins. As each Sister came with a contrite
heart to confess her sins, our Lord enfolded each with
His right arm and by His merits effaced her sins as
though they had never existed. After having purified
them in this manner He presented each to His heavenly
Father, who looking lovingly on them said : " The right
hand of My Just One has protected thee and obtained
for thee a sincere reconciliation."
It sometimes happens, however, that the most calm
souls are disturbed in receiving the Sacrament of Penance.
148 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
They think they are quite unable to discover the depths
of malice and corruption of their fallen nature. Even the
priest could not descend to the depths of the perversity
of their hearts. In these distressing but sanctifying
circumstances St. Mechtilde suggests the following
practice:
If a person having sincerely made her confession fears
to have made a bad confession, and yet finds nothing on
her conscience that she has not confessed, she must make
to God a confession of praise; acknowledging the failings
she perceives in herself and extolling by her praises His
divinity; she will confess how guilty she has been in not
having shown to our Lord sufficient respect, in having so
often tarnished in herself the image of God, in having
filled her memory with worldly and useless things, in
having used her mind to gain worldly knowledge, and in
having taken pleasure in what was vile and fleeting.
In the same way, after having extolled the clear
sightedness of the divine eyes, she will mourn for having
cared too much for earthly things, for having abused the
use of her senses, and for not having profited by her
knowledge of God.
Also, having praised the mercy of the divine ears, she
will accuse herself of not having listened as she ought
to the word of God, and of not having condescended to
listen to others.
How many sins are committed by the tongue, by
murmuring, by vain and useless words; by silence when
God or His doctrine ought to have been spoken of; by
silence at the time of prayer or praise.
And how often has the soul impatiently shaken off
the yoke she had accepted at Baptism, because things
were not to her liking ! She has been either unwilling
to carry it, or has carried it against the grain. And the
yoke of religion which, in the presence of the Saints, she
has received at her profession, promising to belong
THE SACRED HEART AND CONFESSION 149
entirely to God, how often has she not broken it by
refusing to obey !
In remembering with what cruelty Jesus Christ was
scourged, she recognizes that her fault lies in not chas
tising her body, but in flattering it in its softness and in
delicately nourishing it.
She has also sinned before the divine Heart in not
loving God with her whole heart, in not meditating on
the law of God, thinking rather of useless things. She
has sinned with her hands in doing wrong, in avoiding
good works, especially those of mercy and charity done in
common. She has also soiled her feet spiritually — that is,
her affections — when she has turned them from God and
has not directed her aspirations towards Him and heavenly
things with her whole heart.
The voice of our conscience may multiply its accusations
and reproaches, the Angels and Saints themselves may
witness against us, but let us listen to the voice of Jesus,
more powerful than the voice of our iniquities : " O my
Father, I will answer for all that is brought against
each one of them, for My Heart is pierced for love of
them."
What has attracted Thee, O Jesus ? " My own free
choice; I chose them for My own, from all eternity."
So, with the same confidence as St. Mechtilde, relying
on such a surety, let us take our crucifix into our hands
saying to God the Father:
" I offer Thee, O adorable Father, Thy very humble
Son, who has paid all the debts I have contracted by my
pride. I offer Thee Thy most meek Son who has sacrificed
for all the sins I have committed by anger. I also offer
Thee Thy most amiable Son and the love of His Heart,
which has fully satisfied for all my failings. His boundless
liberality has, in advance, paid for all my sins. His holy
zeal has supplied for my cowardice. His perfect absti
nence has atoned for my intemperance. The purity of
150 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
His innocent life has obtained pardon for all the evil
I have committed in thought, word, or deed. His perfect
obedience, which made Him obedient unto death, has
blotted out my disobediences, and His perfection has
atoned for my imperfection."
CHAPTER LII
ON PURITT OF CONSCIENCE
THE holiest souls are often saddened by their
failings, and sometimes their faults, though
slight, become for them an obstacle to frequent
Communion. They dare not receive our Lord ! What
is to be done ?
One day Mechtilde wanted to go to confession; but
there was no confessor, so she was much grieved, as she
could not receive Holy Communion.
She therefore began to pray. She accused herself
bitterly of all her sins to God the High Priest, of her
negligences, and of all her faults, and He assured her that
her sins were forgiven. Returning thanks at once for
this great favour, she said to our Lord: " O my sweet
Saviour, what has now become of all my sins ?" He
replied : " When a powerful King comes to stay in a house,
it is at once cleaned so that nothing should offend his eyes,
but if he is so near that there is no time to carry away the
dirt it is carefully hidden in a corner to be afterwards
thrown away. In the same way, if thou hast the will to
confess thy sins and a firm purpose not to commit them
again, they are completely blotted out, and I will re
member them no more, but thou must remember them
in the confessional. The will and desire which thou hast
to avoid sin with all thy strength and power are bonds
which attach and unite Me to thee so that nothing
could ever separate us."
Jesus had spoken and yet Mechtilde hesitated. This
is what so often happens to timorous souls who dare not
advance even at the priest's word. Many different
reasons caused her to hesitate. She thought herself
152 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED 'HEART
unworthy to partake of the banquet of the King of Angels ;
she felt it impossible to receive so magnificent a gift
without preparation and confession. On the other hand,
our Lord had suggested thoughts of hope and consolation.
Our Lord spoke again. " Reflect," He said, " on this.
Every desire that a soul has ever had to possess Me is
inspired by Me; it is like the Holy Scriptures and the
words of the Saints which proceed, and shall ever proceed,
from My Spirit."
She therefore felt more confidence, and her heart was
filled with so much courage that henceforth nothing
seemed capable of thwarting her desire.
She approached the heavenly banquet of the Body and
Blood of Christ. Then she heard our Lord Himself
say to her: " Wouldst thou know how I am in thy heart ?"
And at once she saw a dazzling brightness like the rays
of the sun streaming from her person, and by that she
understood the working of divine grace in her soul and
a sure mark of God's love for her.
Sin must therefore be washed away in the Sacrament
of Penance. Our Lord has decreed that all mortal sins
shall be so absolved. This is not necessary in the
case of lighter sins, our daily failings; for these love
suffices.
Once Mechtilde saw some sinners present themselves
before our Lord. They carried their sins on their
shoulders and then laid them at His feet. Their sins
were then changed into golden jewels, because their
sorrow was more actuated by the love of God than by
fear of punishment. Those sins, carried with repentance
to the feet of our Lord, had for Him the same value as
the perfume of St. Mary Magdalene, patron of penitents.
Our Lord said: " What shall we do with these faults and
these presents ? Let them be burned in the fire of love."
His visus dominus : quid de hisfaciemus ? Utroque in amore
omnia concrementur — ' Lord, open for me the furnace
ON PURHT OF CONSCIENCE 153
of Thy Heart and cause all my iniquities to be burned
therein.' "
One Sunday, while they were singing the Asperges,
Mechtilde said to our Lord: " My Lord, with what wilt
Thou now wash and purify my heart ?" Then our Lord
with inexpressible love leaned over her, as a mother over
her son, took her into His arms, and said : " I will wash thee
with the love of My divine Heart " — In amore divini
cordis mei te lavdbo. He then opened His Heart, treasury
of divine mercy, and she saw therein a river of flowing
water; it was the river of love, Her soul plunged into it,
and at once was cleansed from all its stains.
But how are we to obtain that this living water of the
Sacred Heart should reach our souls ? By acts of love.
One day, Mechtilde saw flowing, with much force,
a swift and pure stream from the divine Heart, It was
going to purify from all their sins the souls who had
prayed for her through charity, and our Lord said to her :
"Acts of charity cleanse men from venial sin; but sin
clings to the soul like pitch ; it ought, therefore, often to
be cleansed away by confession and great contrition. I
guard in My Heart all works of chanty as a most precious
treasure. I wait until he who has performed them comes
to Me, and then I return them to him to augment his
merit and graces."
CHAPTER LIII
THE SACRED HEART AND HOLT MASS
f • AHE thrice holy Sacrifice of the Cross is renewed
on our Altars. Holy souls devoted to the Sacred
"*• Heart know how to find there the drops of blood
fallen from this fountain during the Passion. They here
offer to the infinite majesty of God all the adoration,
annihilation and satisfaction of the Sacred Heart. The
Heart of Jesus is the centre of the Sacrifice of the Mass.
From this Heart all flows for God and for man. Mechtilde
was allowed to contemplate the grandeur of this mystery.
During Holy Mass she once saw the Heart of Jesus
Christ under the appearance of a lamp. It was as brilliant
and transparent as a living flame. From this divine
Heart overflowed on all around floods of sweetness, which
filled the hearts of all who assisted at Mass. The flame
signified the fire of divine love which burnt in the Heart
of Christ when He offered Himself to God the Father
on the altar of the Cross. The sweetness which over
flowed signified the innumerable blessings and immeasur
able happiness which He has bestowed on us through His
divine Heart. In it we possess all that is necessary for
salvation, praise and thanksgiving, as well as prayer, love,
desire, satisfaction and reparation for all our negligences.
Our Divine Lord said to His servant: "At the Mass
offer thy heart to God, and before beginning thy prayer
purify and detach it from all terrestrial thoughts, so
preparing it to receive the inflowing of divine love which
inundates and fills the hearts of those who assist. I
also deliver Myself entirely, with all I possess, into the
power of thy soul, and in that way thou canst dispose of
Me as thou wilt."
THE SACRED HE AM AND HOLT MASS 155
One day when she was troubled with distractions and
hindered from uniting herself to God during Mass, she
begged our Blessed Lady to obtain for her the presence
of her well-beloved Son. Through the intercession of
the divine mediatrix between God and man she again
saw Jesus on the Altar. She saw Him seated on a raised
throne, clear as crystal. In front of this throne sprang
two beautifully clear streams, one signifying the remission
of sins, and the other spiritual consolation. These are
the gifts given more especially and abundantly during
Mass by divine providence. At the oblation of the
Sacred Host our Lord, who is Himself this divine throne,
seemed to elevate with His own hands his sweet Heart
as a lamp which shone and was filled to overflowing.
The divine oil overflowed on all sides so that it splashed
up in large drops, and yet what had overflowed had not
lessened what the lamp contained. From which we may
understand that all receive of the abundance of our
Lord's Heart, each one according to his capacity, but that
He loses nothing of the superabundance of His beatitude
nor does it suffer the smallest diminution.
O marvellous treasury, never-failing source of blessings,
what folly in man to neglect to avail himself of it ! But
in order to participate therein we must bring the neces
sary dispositions.
One day that Mechtilde was going to assist at Mass
she saw our Lord coming from heaven clothed in white.
He said to her: " When men go to Church they should
prepare themselves by penance, striking their breast and
confessing their sins. They may then approach My
dazzling purity. This is what is signified by My white
clothing."
During the Holy Sacrifice the Sacred Heart is therefore
an open treasury from which we may take all we need.
But what are we to think of the Sacred Heart ? With
what dispositions is it offered on the altar by the hands
156 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
of its^humble minister? Who could tell, O Jesus,
unless Thou didst Thyself reveal it ?
Our Lord offers Himself to us during Mass with seven
different dispositions. In the first, He comes with such
humility that none is too lowly or vile for His conde
scension, if desirous of receiving Him. In the second,
He comes with such patience as to endure any enemy or
sinner and, if the sinner wished it, He would forgive him
all his sins. In the third, He comes with such love as
to inflame the coldest and hardest-hearted worshipper
with His love and touch his heart, if it have in it any
lingering spark of desire. In the fourth, He comes with
such generosity as to enrich the poorest person present.
In the fifth, He offers Himself to all as a sweet and
satisfying food, so that there is no one so ill or so hungry
as cannot be restored or fully satiated by Him. In
the sixth, He comes with such light as to illumine the
most blind or darkened mind with His presence. In the
seventh, He comes with such sanctity and grace as to
help the most cowardly and distracted to shake off his
torpor, and stir him to devotion.
And we who go before this God to receive Holy Com
munion, with what dispositions should we present our
selves to receive Him ?
" While they sing the Sanctus" our Lord tells us, " let
each one say a Pater, and beg of Me to prepare him, in
giving him the all-powerful, wise and sweet love of My
Heart, that he may receive Me worthily into his heart
so that I may work and effect therein, according to
My will, what I had resolved and ordained from all
eternity."
And what should be our thanksgiving? During the
Communion this verse may be recited:
" I praise Thee, O love so strong !
I bless Thee, O love so wise !
I glorify Thee, O love so sweet!"
'THE SACRED HEART AND HOLT MASS 157
" I exalt Thee, O love full of goodness, in all the works,
and for all the good that Thy glorious divinity and
blessed humanity have deigned to operate by Thy most
holy Heart, and that it will continue to operate to all
eternity.
" At the priest's benediction I will bless thee thus :
* May My power bless thee, may My wisdom instruct
thee, may My sweetness fill thee, and may My goodness
draw thee and unite thee to Me, for ever. Amen.' "
Illness sometimes prevents Christians from going to
the church. Mechtilde had also to bear this trial; she
groaned and complained to our Lord at being thus put
aside. Our Lord consoled her thus: "There where
thou art, I am also."
She asked if she did not lose much in hearing Mass
from so great a distance. Our Lord said to her: " It is
good to be present, but, when impossible, and when
illness, obedience, or any other legitimate reason prevents,
then, where thou art, I am also present,"
Mechtilde then said: "O Lord, give now to my soul
some spiritual consolation drawn from the words of the
Mass." Our Lord replied: "At this moment they are
singing the Agnus Dei three times, At the first, offer
Me to God the Father with all My humility and patience
for thyself: at the second, offer Me and all the bitterness
of My Passion in order to obtain perfect forgiveness of
thy sins : at the third, offer Me with all the love of My
Heart to supply for all that man cannot do." Our Lord
added: " Verily, to him who with zeal and devotion hears
Mass, I will send at his last hour as many of the greatest
Saints a's he has heard Masses to console, defend, and form
a guard of honour to him."
The Saints have rejoiced so much at the Masses said
in their honour, that, intoxicated with joy in the Sacred
Heart, they have appeared to the dying man as much to
thank him as to help him. May the poor sick accept
158 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
this sweet consolation from the Sacred Heart ! It is
with you where you are. But, even so, when you hear
the tinkle of the bell which foretells the coming of Jesus
on our altars, offer Him three times, as He Himself asks.
But all you who have strength and leisure, assist
every day at Holy Mass, so as to increase the number
of Saints who shall assemble to help you at the hour of
your death, according to the promise of the Sacred Heart.
Even here below we receive numberless graces through
the Sacred Heart immolated on our altars. Mechtilde
saw the Sacred Heart under the form of a lamp, which
overflowed all around, but she also saw the hearts of
those who assisted at Mass and her own, under the appear
ance of lamps united by mysterious bonds to the Heart
of Jesus. Some were upright, full of oil, and seemed
alight, others were empty and seemed overturned. By
the upright, well-lighted lamps were designated the
hearts of those who assisted at Mass with fervour and
devotion. The empty, overturned lamps represented the
hearts of those who were negligent and did not attempt
to stir up their devotion.
CHAPTER LIV
INVITATION TO HOLT COMMUNION
THE most perfect union with our Lord is effected
by the reception of His most holy Body and Blood
in Holy Communion.
There, as at no other time, meet the Heart of Jesus
and the heart of His disciple. It is, therefore, the most
suitable time for pouring out our love and assuring Him
of our irrevocable fidelity. A fervent soul longs eagerly
for this happy time. And our Lord tells us that one of
the greatest desires of His Heart — desiderio desideravi —
is to eat this mysterious Pasch with us. This is the reason
why He grieves when, through negligence, tepidity, or
human respect, He sees us abstain from Holy Communion.
" My well-beloved," He said one day to a soul guilty
of this neglect, " why dost thou fly from Me ?" Mechtilde
was astonished that our Lord spoke to this person with
so much tenderness; but He said to her: " I will call her
my well-beloved all the days of her life." " But after
her death," asked St. Mechtilde, " will she be deprived
of so tender a name?" Our Lord replied: " She will
keep it for all eternity."
And speaking again to a timid soul, He said: " Draw
near, with confidence, to the omnipotence of the Father,
that He may strengthen thee; to the wisdom of the Son,
that He may enlighten thee; and to the love of the Holy
Ghost, that He may fill thee with His sweetness."
Again, another soul dared not approach the most Holy
Communion, fearing she was not worthy. " Let her
receive Me frequently," said our Lord; " every time
she comes I will receive her as My legitimate queen."
Who could resist so sweet an invitation ? Jesus treats
our souls as His well-beloved, as His queen. And yet,
'59
160 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
how many still hesitate ! Holy Communion is fre
quented, but often only at long intervals.
Mechtilde prayed for one of those souls who feared to
communicate often. Our Lord said to her: " The more
often a soul communicates, the purer it becomes, as we
become cleaner if we wash often. The more often a soul
communicates, the more I operate in it; and the more it
works with Me, its actions become more holy. The more
often a soul communicates, the more profoundly does it
dwell in Me; and the more it penetrates into the abyss of
My divinity, the more is that soul dilated and capable of
containing the divinity. In the same way water falling
on a certain spot of stone at length wears a cavity to fill,"
This marvellous immersion operated by Holy Com
munion is explained by our Lord in another way. One
day after she had received Holy Communion He said
to St. Mechtilde: "I am in thee and thou art in
Me by My power, as a fish in the water." Mechtilde
felt obliged to say: " But, Lord, the fish are sometimes
drawn by nets out of the water; what if the same happened
to me ?" Our Lord calmed this fear : " No one could draw
thee away from Me," He said; " thou shalt make thy
nest in My divine Heart." " My nest in Thy divine
Heart, O Jesus : of what shall this nest be made ?" " It
shall be formed of humility amidst the gifts and graces
which I have conferred on thee. Cast thyself into the
abyss of a profound humility." " O Lord, fish grow in
the water, but shall I bear fruit in Thy divine Heart ?"
" Yes, and such abundant fruit that all heaven will
rejoice. When thou shalt offer Me to God the Father
for the joy and glory of the Saints, their happiness and
recompense shall be increased, as though they had
received Me corporally on the earth."
Who would "not by Holy Communion build his nest
in the Heart of Jesus and in that way increase the joy of
the Angels and Saints ?
CHAPTER LV
PREPARATION FOR HOLT COMMUNION
WE must prepare carefully for Holy Communion.
The Apostle says : " Let a man prove himself,
and then eat of this Bread and drink of this
Chalice."
The preparation must be thorough, worthy of the
Guest we are going to receive, but regulated by pru
dence and kept within the rules of discretion, otherwise
too much solicitude about preparation might prevent
us going to Holy Communion. Exaggeration, on this
head, was the infernal means by which Jansenism tried
to prevent frequent Communion.
Our Lord gave St. Mechtilde some delightful instruc
tions for our edification. One day when she ought to
have received Holy Communion and thought herself
unfit through want of preparation, our Lord said to her:
" I give Myself entirely to thee, to be Myself thy prepara
tion." And He placed His Heart on that of St. Mechtilde
and laid His Head on her head. She then said: "O
Lord, enlighten the face of my soul with the brightness
of Thy countenance." Our Lord replied: " The face
of thy soul is the image of the Holy Trinity. The soul
should see this image reflected in My face as in a mirror,
and see whether he finds some stain in that image."
Mechtilde understood that we should often contem
plate bur soul in this divine Mirror, the face of Jesus
Christ, so as to discover any stains that might disfigure
it, and wash them away before Holy Communion. Purity
of conscience, then, is the first preparation, but the Sacred
Heart expects more.
He gives a second lesson. " O loving Lord," said
161 ii
1 62 THE LOVE OF THE S4CRED HEART
Mechtilde, " teach me how to prepare for the royal
banquet of Thy adorable Body and Blood." Our Lord
answered: " What did My disciples do when I sent them
before Me to prepare the Pasch which I was to eat with
them the night before my Passion ? They prepared a
large and well-furnished hall."
By this our Lord wishes us to remember that with
repentance He desires confidence — confidence in His
immense bounty and liberality in lovingly receiving those
who go to Him. We must have confidence in His
clemency, for He will receive us kindly as a mother,
guarding us from all evil; confidence in His love, which
offers a sure welcome to all who communicate, enriching
them with His best gifts ; confidence in His tenderness,
which will bestow on them faith and hope to obtain all
that is necessary for salvation.
To this unlimited confidence we must join the remem
brance of the Passion. St. Mechtilde always observed
this, our Lord having said: " Do this in memory of Me "
(Luke xxi. 9). The Holy Ghost deigned to comment on
the words: " Do this in memory of Me."
There are three things we should remember in receiving
the Body of Christ. The first is the eternal love of the
Father, which caused Him to love us before we were
made, though He knew well all our defects and wicked
ness, despite which He created us to His own image and
likeness, and for this we should thank Him. The second
is the marvellous love which caused the Son of God,
though He abounded with delight in the bosom of the
Father, to come down on the earth. He left His infinite
majesty and descended to our misery, to us captives in
the bonds of Adam. Hunger, cold, heat, weariness,
sadness, contempt, suffering and the most ignominious
death, He bore with a divine patience, so as to deliver
us from our miseries. The third is the unheard-of love
with which He always watches over us, taking care of us
PREPARATION FOR HOLT COMMUNION 163
in His paternal tenderness. So, after being our Creator
and Redeemer, as a loving brother He intercedes always
for us with the Father, regulates and directs our concerns
as an attendant and faithful servant.
These three things we should always bear in remem
brance, but especially when partaking of the celestial
banquet, the heavenly legacy of the love of Jesus, of which
we should always keep before us the remembrance.
Our Lord also deigned Himself to teach us the intention
we should have in receiving Holy Communion.
It was the custom in the Community to indicate by a
tablet that they intended to communicate, and this
tablet bore the name of the Religious. In writing it
Mechtilde said: "Write, dear Lord, my name on Thy
Heart and inscribe also Thy sweet Name on my heart by
a perpetual remembrance." Our Lord then said to her
one day: "When thou wilt communicate, receive Me
with an intention as strong as if thou hadst all the desires
and all the love which ever filled a human heart. Filled
with the strongest love that the heart of man can contain,
come to Me. I will then receive this love from thee,
not such as it really is in thee, but such as thou wouldst
wish it to be."
So our Lord was faithful to His promise: " I will give
Myself entirely to thee to be thy preparation."
CHAPTER LVI
THE FIFE HAIL MARTS BEFORE HOLT
COMMUNION
ST. MECHTILDE'S pious custom was to recite
five Hail Marys before receiving Holy Com
munion, and these were her intentions:
At the first Hail Mary, she reminded our Lady of the
solemn hour when she conceived a Son in her virginal
womb, at the word of the Angel, and drew Him to her
from heaven by her profound humility. She asked her
to obtain for her a pure conscience and profound humility.
At the second Hail Mary, she reminded her of the
happy moment when she took Jesus for the first time into
her arms and first saw Him in His Sacred Humanity.
She prayed Mary to obtain for her a true knowledge of
herself.
At the third Hail Mary, she begged our Lady to
remember that she had always been prepared to receive
grace and had never placed any obstacle to its operation.
She begged Mary to obtain for her a heart always ready
to receive divine grace.
At the fourth Hail Mary, she reminded our Lady with
what devotion and gratitude she received on earth the
body of her well-beloved Son, knowing better than
anyone the salvation to be found there by mankind.
Mechtilde begged her to obtain that her heart might be
filled with worthy feelings of gratitude. If men knew
the blessings which flow for them from the body of Jesus
Christ, they would faint with joy.
At the fifth Hail Mary, she reminded our Lady of the
reception given to her by her divine Son when He
invited her to take her place near Him in heaven in the
midst of transports of joy.
164
CHAPTER LVII
OF DRTNESS IN RECEIVING HOLT
COMMUNION
ONE of the greatest trials of a pious soul is to feel
nothing but dryness and desolation when Jesus
enters their heart. If it were only a matter of
sorrow and complaint, it would not be so serious, but
alas ! it is often made a pretext for abstaining from Holy
Communion.
Our Lord gives this instruction to them for their con
solation : " When thou art preparing for Holy Communion
and only feelest thy heart dry, with no desire nor love
for prayer nor any of the love thou oughtest to have,
cry with all thy strength to the Lord: * Draw us, and we
will run after Thee to the odour of Thy ointments.'
And in saying this word c Draw us,' think how strong and
powerful was the love which drew the almighty and
eternal God down to the ignominious death of the Cross.
Filled with an ardent desire for Him who said * When
I shall be lifted up from the earth I will draw all things
unto Myself,' beg of Him that He would draw thy heart
and all the powers of thy soul so strongly to Himself that
He will cause thee to run with love and desire in the odour
of the three perfumes which come from the very noble
reservoir of My Heart with so great an abundance that
they fill heaven and earth.
" Trie first perfume is the living water which divine
love distilled from the noble rose of the divine Heart
in the furnace of charity. With this perfume wash the
face of thy soul. If after a serious examination thou
dost find any stain of sin, beg that it may be cleansed in
the fountain of mercy which bathed the thief on the cross.
165
1 66 THE LOVE OF THE SACRED HEART
" The second perfume is the generous wine of the
Precious Blood of the Crucified which issued with water
from the wound of His Sacred Heart. Beg that the face
of thy soul may be tinged with it, so as to be worthy to
take a place at so great a banquet.
" The third perfume is the marvellous meekness which
overflows from the divine Heart. This meekness, which
the bitterness of death could not exhaust, is a perfume
of balsam which surpasses every aromatic perfume and
is a remedy for every infirmity of soul. Beg that this
perfume may be poured into thy soul so that it may taste
and see that the Lord is sweet. It will be nourished by
this sweetness, it will expand and enter entirely into Him
who has given Himself to thee with so much love.
" When thou shalt feel none of this sweetness of which
we have been speaking, beg of thy Sweet and faithful
Jesus, who loves thee, to draw it from Himself; beg that
what is insipid in thee may partake of His savour, that
thy tepidity may gain fervour from Him; and that He
alone may be glorified in all thy works, now and for ever."
So, with us too, O Sacred Heart, either Thy perfumes
will bestow on us the sweetness of Thy fervour, or our
dryness fill Thee with joy. But we will continue always
to go to Thee.
CHAPTER LVIII
THE FRUIT OF HOLT COMMUNION
ST. BENEDICT'S holy daughter is never tired of
presenting the Sacred Heart to us as the source
of all good, all happiness, and every virtue.
Its influence on souls is increasing, but it is never
more powerful than after Holy Communion. Then our
Lord not only gives graces, but Himself; and He gives
Himself that He may be everything to the soul in its
needs. If we are weak, He rests in our breast as a shield,
to be our defence and strength against our enemies. If
we aspire to practise virtue, He comes to communicate
to us His own.
In this manner St. Mechtilde saw Him give Himself
one Good Friday to the Religious as buried in aromatic
perfumes of delicious odour. The aromatic perfume
came from all parts of His Sacred Heart and blossomed
like flowers, so that this divine Heart was like a mass of
flowers. But how is this marvellous union accomplished ?
The Holy Fathers employ two comparisons, which our
Lord Himself made use of in instructing His servant.
At the moment of communicating He said to her: " Wilt
thou now see how I am in thee and thou art in Me ?"
In her humility she kept silence, but, at once, she saw our
Lord as a transparent crystal, and her own soul as most
pure a'nd shining water flowing throughout the Body of
Christ.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem says that those who communicate
are so intimately united to Jesus Christ that they have
with Him but one body and soul. This wonderful
union is expressed again, but with more theological
167
1 68 THE LOFE OF THE SACRED HEART
exactitude. "Behold," said St. Mechtilde, "whilst
assisting at Mass Thou art wholly in the hands of the
priest and yet art wholly in me." Our Lord answered:
" Is not thy soul in all the different parts of thy body ?
If thy soul, a simple creature, has this privilege, why
should not I, the Creator of all things, be in all My crea
tures and everywhere ?"
He then caused her to rest on His Heart and said to
her: " Receive My divine Heart entirely." And Mech
tilde felt the divinity dart through her like an impetuous
torrent.
But what is of more importance than knowing how this
union is effected is to understand the fruits it ought
to produce in us, and the obligation under which we lie,
with God's help, of showing them in our lives.
Mechtilde had another day received the Sacred Body
of Jesus. After sweet colloquies with Him, it seemed to
her that our Lord took her heart and placed it in His
divine Heart, so that the two made only one. He then
said: " It is in this manner that I wished the heart of
man to be united to Me in its desires, so that all its move
ments might be regulated by My Heart, as two winds
blowing together make only one draught.
" This being so, man ought to unite himself to Me in
all his actions. If, for example, he wishes to eat or to
sleep, he should say: * Lord, in union with the love which
caused Thee to make this food or this rest for me, I take
this for Thy eternal praise and for the needs of my body.'
In the same way when some work is commanded Him,
he should say: 'Lord, in union with the love which made
Thee work with Thy hands, and causes Thee still to work
unceasingly in my soul, in union with the love which lays
this task on me, I wish to acquit myself of it for Thy glory
and for the interests of all, for Thou hast said: "Without
Me thou canst do nothing." I pray of Thee to unite
it to Thee and to perfect it as Thy works are perfect, that
THE FRUIT OF HOLT COMMUNION 169
it may be as a drop of water fallen into a great river,
which has no other movement than that of the river."
" The union must also be one of will, so that all may
be accepted as My will in adversity as in prosperity. As
two precious metals melted become one and can no more
be separated, so man by love becomes one mind with Me,
and this is the greatest perfection and the highest sanctity
in this life."
Printed in England
Jl
MECHTILDE, St. BQT
The Love of the Sacred rieart. 2591